


The Queen's Sacrifice

by griffindork93



Series: Vampire Yuuki [2]
Category: Vampire Knight
Genre: F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-03
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2017-12-28 09:09:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 24,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/990263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/griffindork93/pseuds/griffindork93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yuuki, once human and now a vampire, struggles to rule a vampire nation while being pregnant. The queen's the most powerful piece on the chessboard, but sometimes she needs to be sacrificed to check the king. Sequel to Where the Dice Fall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Her well-manicured nails tapped out a quick rhythm. It was her way to vent stress.

Sara thought she had planned for every move Kuran could make. It had been obvious that he had been trying to make waves, so Sara never took her eyes off the last Kuran. She watched him from afar, studying his decisions and actions, and prepared herself for the time when he would make his changes. 

But she had never seen the girl coming. How did one predict the miraculous return of a Pureblood no one knew existed? 

It had only been one month since her reveal, yet the couple already had a following. Kaname was hunting down the hunters like the dogs they were, and the girl had thrown one ball and already planned their coronation on the Winter Solstice. 

Sara crumbled the invite to the King’s and Queen’s Coronation Ball on December twenty-first. 

She refused to see a human on the throne. Sara would not follow a lesser being. Six months was plenty of time for her to remove the human and insert herself in her place.

“Fetch me lunch please, darling.” She asked of one of her handmaidens. The young girl, who served Sara in return for the promise of immortality, obediently brought forth a human female in her early twenties, most likely a college student, too drunk to realize that Sara’s flashing fangs were not plastic inserts. 

Sara drank deeply; she so loved the taste of fresh blood from a female. Once finished she order the human removed. 

The human was placed in a cell. A Pureblood did not need to drink every day, but Sara enjoyed her luxury and the strength fresh blood gave her. Soon, she would have an army of Level Es. The Kurans could not fight the war on two fronts. They would have to choose the hunters or the fallen.

And when they chose to exterminate the ex-humans, Sara would be there to show the nobility that the Kurans were incapable of taking charge of an entire nation. If they could not control the creation of Level Es, how could they ever be trusted to see to the safety of all vampires; they could not even protect the humans they valued so dearly.

XxxtheQueen’sSacrificexxx

Yuuki cursed, taking pride in the fact that she no longer talked with a lisp, as her fangs slid out of her gums once more. Only a month into her pregnancy, and she was consuming more blood than her books said the average female drank. She had already taken from Aidou twice that morning. 

She knew he wouldn’t complain. Aidou idolized her brother, and now he worshipped her. He did everything she asked of him and some things she didn’t. He tutored her in politics and culture until see could host a party in her sleep. So far, Aidou was the only one Yuuki had informed about her pregnancy. He had made her swear to never lie to him so that he could always protect her, and to tell him of anything important that could pose a risk to her health.

Yuuki didn’t believe being pregnant would be bad for her health, but she had let Aidou know so that he could care for her properly. When she had told him, the Aristocrat had promptly knelt, offering his neck, and promised to always be available should a blood craving strike. 

Her hormones had caused her to burst into tears, and Aidou had panicked. He didn’t stop listing all the horrible things Kaname would do to him until Yuuki told him they were tears of happiness. 

But Yuuki may have been wrong. This pregnancy was extremely draining on her. She was experiencing lethargy and severe blood cravings, to the point where she was drinking four or five times a day, symptoms that she shouldn’t be having until her six month. 

She could tell Aidou was worried, too. He never denied her blood, but she could see it in his face. He, too, knew this was abnormal. Neither knew what to do, so they did nothing. Yuuki drank until she thought she might be sick, and Aidou slurped blood tablets like slushies. 

They had tried once, to substitute the synthetic blood, but Yuuki’s body had rebelled instantly. The dissolved blood tablets came right back up.

“Yuuki-sama, perhaps we should tell, Lord Kaname.”

“No.” Yuuki shook her head. She could not tell her brother she was sick. He would worry too much about her and not his campaign. “He needs to focus on the hunters, and convincing those who follow Sara a return to the Olde Ways will be beneficial for all.”

Aidou frowned, torn between doing what was best for her, and serving her as he was supposed to. He sighed. “Alright. I’ll let it go for now, Yuuki-sama, but if it gets worse, I will tell Kaname-sama.”

Yuuki nodded. She could agree with that. Even if she did need more blood, she would just ask Akatsuki. Or force blood tablets down her throat. She would not endanger her brother’s plans.

XxxtheQueen’sSacrificexxx

Kaname locked himself in his office after he shared blood with his fiancée. Normally Yuuki would follow him in, chatting about what she and Aidou did that day and asking how his plans were coming. Today she had claimed tiredness.

He had let her go with a gentle kiss, wishing her a good day’s rest. He had noticed recently that she seemed less energetic and much paler than normal, and Kaname couldn’t help but wonder if this new lifestyle was getting to her, that she was having trouble adjusting. So many expectations came with being a Pureblood. Yuuki had always pushed herself beyond her limits for those dear to her. He didn’t doubt she was doing it know. She had voiced her concerns once, about not being good enough for him. Kaname thought he had quelled those fears. 

He had no doubt that she would exhaust herself learning to be the perfect Pureblood. While glad that her study habits hadn’t reverted back her none existent ones from school, he would actually prefer her tendency to procrastinate over this obsessive studying.

Kaname sighed. He would talk to her later, remind her that she needn’t learn a lifetime’s knowledge in such a short time, and that no one expected her to. 

A knock sounded on his door. Aidou poked his blonde head in. “My lord, may I speak with you. It’s about Yuuki-sama.”

Kaname had been about to deny him, tell him he was too busy to be disturbed, but waved him in. Hanabusa spent all day in the presence of his sister and would be able to tell him what was wrong. Kaname gestured for him to sit. 

Kaname prepared himself for a rant on how their current plans were pushing Yuuki to work herself to death, and that he should do something to see that she rests. What he got was entirely different.

“Yuuki-sama’s pregnant!” blurted Aidou. He slapped his hands over his mouth as soon as the words left. He had not meant to tell his lord so frankly!

“Hanabusa, I . .  . is she really?”

Aidou blinked, sure it was his mind playing tricks on him. He had never seen Kaname so jubilant. His whole face lit up and his eyes were shining. “Yes, but I’m worried for her.”

His lord’s happiness dimmed. The ice wielder rushed on. “It seems to be progressing so quickly. She’s already experiencing the blood cravings, my Lord, and at such a frequency that I’m hard pressed to sate her.” He paused to drink from his thermos of synthetic blood. “She also tires very quickly and occasionally complains of back aches or foot aches. I-I don’t know what to do, my Lord.” He finished, hands falling uselessly into his lap.

To his surprise, when Aidou looked up, his lord was smiling. “My Lord?”

“I believe I know what’s the matter, Aidou. It is uncommon, rare even, but I believe Yuuki is with twins.”

Aidou gasped. “Truly?”

Kaname nodded. “Yes. Carrying twins will be very difficult for Yuuki. Dangerous. Make certain that she gets all the blood she needs. I will convince her to rest more, or at least work from the bed.”

Aidou left his office, glad that he had informed Kaname of what was wrong and more than pleased that he knew how to help. Behind his desk Kaname grinned. He was going to be a father. To twins. His Yuuki was so remarkable.

XxxtheQueen’sSacrificexxx

Yuuki knew that Aidou had ratter her out to Kaname. If she ignored how hurt she felt that he would go behind her back and against her wishes, she understood why he did it. He was only concerned about her and worried about his inability to look after her.

But it still hurt that he didn’t trust her. Kaname hadn’t said anything about her increased blood intake or about her being pregnant, so she didn’t think Aidou told him everything, but he dropped his plans for the week to ensure that she spent less time studying and planning parties.

She had protested fiercely, insisted that she was fine and that he shouldn’t be ignoring his duties for her. Kaname had silenced her quickly by reminding her of several incidences where she had excused herself to bed early.

With no leg left to stand on, Yuuki was forced to comply with her brother’s wishes.

Their meal was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. Aidou raced off to answer it, returning with a letter he handed to Kaname. 

Yuuki watched his brow furrow as he read. “What’s it say, Onii-sama?”

He smiled thinly. “There is trouble with Level Es, lately. Many of them have been spotted.”

Yuuki frowned. “This is Sara’s doing.” It was a statement. She knew that a Level E only came from a human that had been bitten by a Pureblood. One who did not drink from the creator in return. They were driven into madness, insanity. They hungered only for the taste of blood. Only a Pureblood could change a human into a vampire, and Sara was the only other Pureblood.

“Yes.”

“Why though? What does she gain? The nobility will know it was her?”

“They will not care. The nobility is too concerned with themselves to notice the excessive numbers of sub-vampires. They will not care who created them, only who deals with them. They dislike having to deal with them but dislike even more having the hunters deal with them. Sara is creating dissent. She is trying to force me to either stop my war on the hunters, which would anger the nobility, or to order to nobility onto the streets to hunt down rats, which would be an insult.”

“I think that you should deal with the vermin, my Lord.” Aidou suggested. “Exterminate them. The hunters are already hiding like the cowards they are.”

“No. If I let up on the hunters, they will believe me weakened, stretched too thin. I cannot have them trying to take advantage of this situation.”

“Can’t we deal with both? I can take care of Level Es.”

“No, my love.”

“But I did as a human. It was part of my job as a Disciplinary Member to destroy Level Es!” Yuuki protested.

“Which you couldn’t do. You felt sorry for them and hesitated.” The brunette flushed at the reminder. 

Her brother shook his head. “It’s simply not safe for you, Yuuki. You’re still adjusting to your vampire body.”

“Then send Aidou and Akatsuki with me. They can help, and they’ll be there if things go sideways.”

Kaname put his foot down, refusing to let her help in any way. In a fit of tears, she stormed out of the dining room, letting the two males plan how to deal with this latest problem. It was unfair that she wasn’t allowed to help. 

They were a pair now. Two. It was their plans, their choices. They decided these things together. He hadn’t refused her contributions or help when she was human, but he did now. He had never left her out once she became his Consort. It raised all sorts of uncertainties in Yuuki. Did Kaname like her better when she was a human? Did he wished he had never turned her, or even taken her as his Consort? Would he have preferred to continue to work on his own, or maybe he would have gone to Shirabuki?

Determination filled her. She would prove to him that she could handle the role and responsibility of Queen and Consort. 

And she would start with the hunters.


	2. Chapter 2

Kaien Cross observed his adoptive daughter as she poured tea for the Vampire Hunter Association President, a woman with olive green eyes, pale purple-grey hair that is partly tied up, and a light complexion and Touga Yagari, his old friend who could not look more different from his leader. He had long, wavy, jet-black hair, blue eyes, an eye patch over his right eye, a wide brimmed cowboy style hat and a cigarette hanging from his mouth.

Yuuki looked serene, nodding her head politely when Touga scoffed and said he wouldn’t drink anything a vampire gave him. 

“That is your choice.” She dropped a blood tablet into her teacup, stirring the water until it turned blood colored. 

“Why have you asked us here?” The President said from behind her fan.

Yuuki gently set her teacup down on its matching saucer, sunlight glinting off her diamond ring. “We have something we’d like to discuss with you.”

“We?”

“Kaname and myself. He apologizes for being unable to attend but he is personally seeing to the execution of several Level Es.” His daughter said softly. “I know that my brother has previously asked you to disband your association. . .”

Touga leapt to his feet. “And like we told him, we will do no such thing. Your brother doesn’t know what he’s asking. We can’t trust vampires to police themselves!”

“Please calm yourself, Yagari-sensei. Kaname acted hastily but he did so in the best interests of our nations. If you will allow me to explain.”

“Kaname’s actions only prove how dangerous vampires can be. Vampires are violent creatures. They take pleasure in killing. How could shutting down the hunters benefit us? If we don’t kill the rogue and dangerous vampires, who will?”

Kaien expected his daughter to lean forward eagerly, eyes wide and shining, as she babbled how vampires weren’t evil creatures. Yuuki did none of those things.

Instead the Pureblood picked up her cup once more, draining the liquid inside. “Allow me to explain.” She repeated. “As you have no doubt heard, we recently lost all of our Senate members to an attack from Rido. Without a governing body, vampires were unsure how to act. There isn’t a policy to follow when all of your leaders are dead.

“Kaname has stepped up. He recognizes and acknowledges the flaws in our society. In order to fix those flaws we are reinstating the Olde Ways.”

The two vampire hunters stared at her. “I see you are unfamiliar with them. Vampire society was once a monarchy, and rather like human monarchies, such a system spurned jealousy and murder as Purebloods and Aristocrats fought over the crown. Over the last month Kaname has been reestablishing the Olde Ways.”

Yagari put out his first cigarette on the coffee table, Kaien nearly admonished him for it and would have if not for Yuuki’s stern look, and lit a second one. “And I suppose he’s the new king.”

Yuuki inclined her head, long dark brown hair swishing as she did so. “The Olde laws state that only pure blood can sit upon the throne. My brother is the last male Pureblood.”

“While your history is fascinating,” the female head of the vampire hunters interrupted, “I want to know what this means for us.”

“It means that your services are no longer needed. Your powers were bestowed upon you by a Pureblood Ancestor in the hopes that humans and vampires could coexist. But you have abused your powers. Your hunters kill vampires for sport, no longer satisfied with hunting Level Es. From now on, vampires will monitor their own.”

“Kaname cannot do that alone.”

“My brother is not alone.”

“And how do you intend to keep a leash on the rest of your kind?” Touga growled. “There are dozens of Level Es on the streets now.”

Yuuki’s normally brown eyes glowed crimson. “Pureblood is not just a title. Purebloods are power. Our abilities outweigh your own. The Magick involved will tie all vampires to their Queen. Her will shall be their will.”

Kaien shivered at the ice in Yuuki’s voice. She had asked him to be here to act as a mediator, having once been a hunter. But his daughter didn’t seem to need his help. She knew just how to handle the two hunters.

“And I follow my father’s beliefs. Humans and vampires can live side by side. There will be no Level Es.”

Yuuki’s tone brokered no arguments. It left the two vampire hunters gaping at her like a fish out of water. Kaien beamed proudly at her, unable to believe his sweet Yuuki was the same confident vampire.

“Now that you have been informed, I will only ask you once to recall your hunters and cancel your lists. You have one month to disband your association or I will do it for you.”

Promise delivered, Yuuki’s personality did a complete one-eighty to the human daughter Kaien had raised, cheerfully thanking the two hunters for visiting and wishing them a safe journey. 

He pounced on his daughter, tears already streaming down his face. “Most impressive my daughter. Daddy is so proud of you!” He hugged her tight to his chest and spun her around in circles. “Advocating peace between the two races just like me.”

“Of course we would. I know better than most that your dream is possible.” Yuuki smiled softly. “Kaname-nii-sama plans to make it mandatory for vampire children to attend Cross Academy. You might have to make the Moon Dorms larger.”

The intensity of Kaien Cross’s tears increased to a rushing river. He had never imagined this day would come when Kaname begged him to take Yuuki in that winter night.

He shed more tears as he left that afternoon. The brilliant mind behind the happy go lucky personality whirring, piecing together the little oddities he had noticed; the numerous blood tablets his daughter had taken, how she folded her feet underneath her on the settee, something she only did when her feet ached, and the slower movements, like she was swimming in molasses. 

The over two hundred year old man skipped to his car. He was going to be a grandfather!

Xthequeen’ssacrificexxX

Yuuki was already asleep when Kaname returned to the Kuran Manor after a day of hunting Level Es. It was unsurprising. After all, Kaien’s exuberance was enough to tire out a normal vampire. It was a wonder that Yuuki had managed to live with him for ten years and not turn into a mini female version of him.

So Kaname thought nothing of his Consort’s early night.

Until Aidou presented him with an empty pill container. The one Yuuki used to hold the blood tablets she wasn’t supposed to be consuming.

The blonde Aristocrat could offer him no explanation seeing as he had joined Kaname on the day’s hunt. Yuuki had informed him of her desire to have her adoptive father over, so he had felt it safe to bring Aidou with him.

Clearly he was going to have to keep a closer eye on his sister. Perhaps he could assign Akatsuki to always be at her side too. He could say it was to sate her blood cravings.

Blood cravings.

Kaname felt so stupid. Guilt twisted his insides. Both he and Hanabusa had left, so Yuuki had had no blood sources and was forced to resort to blood tablets. 

He wanted to bang his head against the wall for all the good it would do him. How could he have been so thoughtless? How could he have forgotten that she needed fresh vampire blood every few hours? Her hunger would be tremendous when she next woke.

Kaname decided to make Akatsuki a permanent fixture in the manor. Aside from the extra protection it would offer and the second pair of eyes to look out for her, Yuuki would never find herself short on blood.

Xxxthequeen’ssacrificexxX

The Pureblood was surprised to receive a message from the head of the Hunter’s Association midafternoon.

_Dear Kuran-san,_

_Please note that we have already begun to do as you asked. There will be no need for any more of our own to die._

_All vampire kill lists were voided and the hunters have been ordered to turn in their weapons, which will be melted down._

_The Hunter’s Association had been officially disbanded._

_Pass along our congratulations to Kaname for your upcoming nuptials and our thanks for handling the ex-human situation._

_Tamen Sei._

So the head of the Hunter’s Association had a name. Then he realized the letter was not addressed to him but to Yuuki.

When had she contacted Tamen? How did she convince the woman to do what he could not? When Kaname had demanded her hunter’s disband and cease hunting his vampires, the woman had laughed mockingly behind her fan and said as long as vampires walked the earth, so, too, would hunters.

He needed answers, so he shook Yuuki awake. Brown eyes looked blearily up at him. “Kaname?”

Yuuki’s eyes focused on the open letter and empty pill bottle her brother held. She quickly read the short missive as her brother frowned at her. Guilt churned in her stomach, causing her throat to tighten. She hadn’t thought the Association would comply so quickly. She thought they would drag it out to the last day, taking advantage of the month in which they could still kill vampires,  and either force her to kill them because they refused to disband or sink into the shadows to continue their war on vampires.

She thought she would have time to soften Kaname to the idea of her meeting with the hunters.

“Why?” It was one word but it asked many questions. Why did you not tell me? Why did you go behind my back? Why did you get involved? Why did you drink all your blood tablets? Why were you not resting? Why did you lie to me?

“We’re supposed to be partners, equals. But you wouldn’t let me help.”

“You’re pregnant. I cannot let you fight Level Es and hunters in your condition.”

Yuuki sighed. “So Aidou did tell you. It doesn’t mean I’m made of glass. I supposed to be your Queen. What vampire is ever going to listen to a queen that doesn’t involve herself? I just wanted to prove I have what it takes.”

“What it takes?” He repeated. “Love, you will be an excellent queen. You don’t have to prove that to anyone, let alone me.”

“But I do,” insisted Yuuki. “You haven’t let me help at all lately. You’ve been handling Sara and the hunters on your own.” Unbidden tears obscured her eyes. “I thought that maybe you didn’t want me anymore.”

Kaname knelt beside the bed, taking left hand into his own. “You are my life, Yuuki. I don’t want to see you or the children hurt.”

Yuuki cursed her hormones as she started crying uncontrollably. “I can take care of myself. And I have Aidou to protect me.”

“But Hanabusa wasn’t there yesterday.”

“It was just a meeting with the hunters.” Yuuki snapped. “My father was there.”

It was Kaname’s turn to sigh. Yuuki was always rather stubborn, but she was even more so when she perceived she was right, or if she was trying to help someone she cared for. Pacifist at heart, she just didn’t see the danger hunters posed, especially in her condition.

“Well, whatever you said to them worked. The hunters won’t bother us in the future. How did you do it?”

Yuuki blinked at her brother’s switch in topics. “I just told them we could police our own and that there would be no more Level Es. I think they would have listened to you the first time if you explained the ancient Magick involved.”

“And the blood tablets?” His wine colored eyes narrowed as her skin took on a faintly green tint.

“I couldn’t drink real blood in front of them. They would think me a hypocrite, promising the protection of humans, if I sat there sipping their blood. So I forced myself to drink the tablets.”

“You foolish girl.” Kaname said tenderly. “From now on I won’t exclude you and you promise to drink no more blood tablets. Deal?”

“Deal.”


	3. Chapter 3

Akatsuki stood as still as a statue in the grandiose dining hall. Burnt-orange eyes were trained on his Lord’s fiancée as she scribbled a list of tasks she wanted to accomplish that day. 

It had taken numerous pleas (“Yuuki-sama, you cannot leave the mansion. Kaname-sama said it was not safe.”), logic (“Please be reasonable, my lady. We’re here to serve you. You need to let us help.), Hanabusa’s wailing (“Your brother will kill me if I let you do all this!”), and more than a little emotional blackmail (“This much stress cannot be healthy for your child, my lady.”), which stopped her in her tracks, to convince Yuuki to stop working so much.

Kaname had only reassigned him two days ago, but Akatsuki could see why his to be king was so worried. 

Yuuki was restless.

Maybe it was because she was no longer patrolling the Academy’s grounds to protect the secret of the vampires’ existence. Maybe it was anxiousness over her whiplash change in status, from human to Pureblood and preparing herself to be a mother and a queen. Maybe it was worry for her brother who was returning home later each morning, drained from hunting down an army of Level E’s all night.

Whatever the reason, Yuuki was unduly stressing herself, and neither he nor Aidou could stop her from thinking about the extensive list of things she needed to deal with.

There was a slight hiss of air.

In a flash, he sunk down on one knee by Yuuki’s chair, head tilted to the side and neck already bared. 

Aidou had quickly learned, and made sure that it was the second piece of information Akatsuki knew, the first being that Yuuki was pregnant, that that hiss of air came when Yuuki’s fangs emerged unbidden, a tell-tale sign of her blood cravings. The orange haired vampire admired his cousin for handling her extreme cravings by himself for a month. 

After she had fed, tongue darting out to catch the blood clinging to her lips, Aidou insisted, and got, Yuuki’s return to her room to rest. The blonde, who the Pureblood was infinitely more comfortable with, accompanied her inside while Akatsuki stood guard outside her bedroom door.

Akatsuki, and the whole Kain family, had always been pro-monarchy. His family had been ecstatic about the revival of the King and Queen. They had never cared for what was supposed to be an equal distribution of power amongst the upper two levels of vampires. Being creatures that lived infinitely long lives, they needed rules and restrictions. 

The Senate had been a joke. They had pretended they held power and that they were in control, but when they pushed too hard, a Pureblood always put them in their place. The Senate could not stand against the power of a Pureblood.

Not when it was so instinctively ingrained in them to defer to the will of Purebloods. 

xxxtheQueen’sSacrificexxx

Sara looked critically at the young girl her handmaidens had brought before her. The human was rather cute. Sara wasn’t a fan of short hair. Long hair was a sign of prestige, a testament for a female to their power and age and standing, but the short brown locks suited the human. 

“Tell me your name, darling.” She commanded. 

“Sayori Wakaba.”

“You will address her lady with respect!” snapped one of Sara’s more favored handmaidens. 

The brunette bowed her head humbly and repeated herself. “Sayori Wakaba, my lady. Please call me Yori.”

The Pureblood vampire motioned the girl forward and she hesitantly complied, kneeling when directed to. “And what brings you here, beautiful Yori?”

The human’s answer was simple and anticipated. “I wish to become a vampire.”

“All of these young ladies harbor the same desire,” she said, gesturing with one hand to the score of girls positioned around the room. “Tell me why I should grant you your wish. What will you do for such a generous gift?”

“I attended Cross Academy, my lady. Yuuki Kuran was my best friend.”

A hush fell over the room. 

Sara sat up from her relaxed sprawl. She sharply lifted the human’s head, whose gaze was pointed at the floor, and looked into serious hazel eyes. “Continue.”

“We shared a room. I can tell you anything you want to know about her, my lady.”

“And you would turn so lightly on your friend?”

“I asked her to turn me. She refused.”

“Oh, yes. She doesn’t value you.” Sara expertly played with the young human’s feelings. “I shall treasure you, darling. I promise to change you.”

Yori’s eyes sparkled with pleasure and happines. “Provided you tell me everything you know.”

“Yes, my lady,” Yori vowed. “Do you want to know their plans for you? Or how their faring against the Level E’s? Or. . .”

“Hush, darling. Business can wait. Come, sit with me. I want to get to know you first.”

Yori looked uncertain but didn’t dare refuse the vampire. Sara pulled her so that she was sitting in the other woman’s lap and wrapped two pale arms around her waist. Dipping her chin into the junction of the human’s neck and shoulder she said, “Now, tell me how you came to know of vampires and why you want to be one.”

Given the politely phrased orders, Sayori obediently opened her mouth and told her story.

“The Night Class always scared me,” she admitted. “There was something different about them and I couldn’t understand why all the other girls fawned over them and how they could throw themselves at the Night Class’s feet. I couldn’t see a reason for the Headmaster to have two students patrolling the grounds every night and overseeing the switch of Day and Night Class students.  Especially since one of the Disciplinary Committee Guardians was Yuuki. She was always so insistent that it was her duty, that she had to help, that she was the only one that could. But all I saw was my best friend being worked harder than anyone else, never getting enough sleep and shaking from returned nightmares. 

“One night it all changed. Yuuki came back with a bandage on her neck, protesting that it was a little scratch and that I needn’t worry. She wouldn’t let me clean like she had her other injuries. The next day she skipped classes, something Yuuki never did. After that I hardly saw her in the dorms. She stopped sleeping in our room. She attended class but Yuuki always seemed to be preoccupied with something else. 

“I wasn’t stupid. I knew something was bothering her. She looked exhausted. Her skin was ashen and there were bags under her eyes. She started where shirts with high collars. Her hand would drift to her neck unconsciously. So, I confronted her. Demanded to know why she was pushing me away. Asking why she was always surrounded by at least three Night Class students. She told me she couldn’t answer. It wasn’t her secret to share. She ran back to the Moon Dorms crying.

“Kaname visited me that night. I thought he was going to make me pay for making Yuuki cry. He had always been so protective of her. I told her numerous times of how he looked at her, but Yuuki said there was nothing between them, said he was only looking out for her because he had saved her life once. 

“If there was one thing Kaname hated, it was anyone upset Yuuki. He constantly put down Zero causing her pain and I saw him snap at a vampire that insulted her. His eyes glowed red. 

“That night he told me the truth. It scared me, to think that I lived at school with so many vampires. If it wasn’t for Yuuki I would have asked my father to pull me out of the academy. But I couldn’t leave Yuuki alone. She needed someone to take care of her, someone to remind her that she was human.

“I told her she was stupid. She was my best friend. I would have never abandoned her. 

“I supported her. She confided in me whenever she felt inadequate or when she was uncertain of their plans. That’s how I learned about you. 

“Kaname never saw you as a threat to his power. He was confident that revealing Yuuki as a Pureblood would derail you and leave you with no foot to stand on. Yuuki disagreed.”

Yori paused her tale to take a calming breathe. “My mother died when I was young. Hit by a drunk driver. Ever since then I’ve been afraid that my life could end so easily, too soon. So when I learned Yuuki was a vampire I begged her to turn me. She wouldn’t. And then I remembered you. Remembered that there was another person who could change me. When I heard those girls mention you I begged them to take me to you.”

Sayori fell quiet, sighing softly as Sara petted her hair. 

“Thank you, darling. Do you think you could do me a favor?”

Yori immediately offered her neck. “No, no, no. Nothing like that,” laughed Sara. “No. What I need is for you to return to Yuuki. I need you to tell me everything she and Kuran are planning. Can you do that for me?”

“Of course, my lady.”

“Good girl.”

xxxtheQueen’sSacrificexxx

“Yes, Kaname?” Yuuki asked when he said her name. 

“Aidou informed that you’re feeling rather restless.” Kaname ignored her undertone mutters about how she was going to hurt Aidou for telling him that and said, “Would you like to invite a your friend Yori to visit?”

Yuuki instantly perked at the thought, cheerful attitude replacing dark promises for her ever loyal friend. She hadn’t seen Yori since they left Cross Academy. It would be wonderful to see her again. They could gossip about her pregnancy.

“I would love that. Thank you onii-sama.”

“You’re welcome, love. How was your day? How are you feeling? Where there any issues today?”

Yuuki prevented herself from sighing. Her brother asked the same questions every evening and her answer remained the same. 

“Today was fine. I finished reading the book of Olde Magick. Both Aidou and Akatsuki were on hand any time I needed blood and they made sure I got plenty of rest. On an unrelated note, I found tablecloths to match the china for our Coronation Ball. Twenty-seven more vampires have confirmed they will be in attendance and I have started drawing a seating chart. And I postponed my appointment with the dressmaker.

“But I’m worried Kaname.”

Kaname focused on his fiancée.  “About what? It sounds like you have everything running smoothly. There’s no need to worry about the Level E’s. I have a plan to deal with both them and Sara Shirabuki at the same time.”

“It’s not her.” Yuuki waved off his words. “It’s this baby. I already love him or her, and I know a vampire pregnancy is different from a human one, but it’s all happening all so fast. Mine’s not like any of the ones documented. My cravings came upon me at the start and they’re only getting worse. Just yesterday I thought I felt movement.”

Her brother’s hand’s leapt to her still flat stomach. “I thought it was my imagination. I mean, it was just a twinge of my stomach, and it hasn’t happened since.”

As if to prove her wrong the skin of her stomach rippled as if something was pushing it from within. Kaname was smiling so widely that Yuuki didn’t want to continue voicing her fears of how unprepared she was.

She had been so excited to discover she was pregnant. She was going to be a mother. She and Kaname were starting a family. It was her deepest dream come true.

And then it progressed so fast, like a snowball rolling down a mountain that gained momentum as grew larger, frightening her. 

What if it was her fault? What if something had gone wrong because she had been temporarily turned into a human? Would there be something wrong with her baby?

Every day Yuuki felt she was drowning in her fears. And she couldn’t share them with anyone. They wouldn’t have answers for her. They would only placate her with assurances she had heard before.

“Don’t worry, my love. You and the baby will be fine. I promise.”

Yuuki trusted her fiancée. He knew more than she did so she believed him when he said everything would work out. 

She snuggled contently in his arms, reveling in the safety she felt there.

Everything would be fine. Kaname had promised. And he had promised not to lie to her or leave her in the dark. So he had to be right.

‘Everything will be fine,’ she repeated to herself.


	4. Chapter 4

  


She gave no indication that she was not engrossed in her party planning for the Coronation Ball, and how dearly did Yuuki wish she could give this burden to someone else, perhaps Ruka, the task was right up her alley, but Yuuki was subtly peering at her best friend from beneath her dark lashes.   


It had been a month since her first visit. When Kaname had extended an opened ended invitation for her to give her friend, Yuuki had wasted no time and practically begged Yori to come and visit with her.   


The young vampire couldn’t put her finger on it, but other woman was hiding something. Something big. The normally very composed girl was twitchy. She would cross and uncross her legs, tapping her foot against the floor. Her brown eyes never stayed on the papers, menus, designs, seating arrangements, responses to invitations, order forms, and a thousand other things Yuuki had no idea went into planning extravagant parties, littering the table that she was supposed to be helping Yuuki sort through.    


And whatever this secret was, Yuuki knew with certainty that it dealt with her brother, because the human’s eyes would flicker in his direction every so often.  


She had come a long way from her days as a girl almost obnoxiously oblivious to the emotions of those around her. So Yuuki was sure that her friend was trying to guard a sense of nervous and a need to talk to Kaname behind her typical concern for the Pureblood’s wellbeing.   


At least, Yuuki prayed that was the explanation for Yori’s odd behavior. The other possibility was whatever secret Yori had was of a large enough magnitude to frighten her, to the point where she needed Kaname’s help.  


And, given that she hadn’t shared, Yuuki felt safe in assuming this great secret also had something to do with her.   


Watching as Yori’s brown eyes slid to Kaname, seated at his desk, for the fourth time in one minute, the female vampire made her excuses. More than once Yuuki had randomly announced a desperate need for the toilet and hurriedly made her way out of a room.  


She most often employed this tactic when annoyed with her brother, mostly whenever the topic of her assisting him in establishing the monarchy and making appearances with him and showing a united front. Kaname was adamant that her presence wasn’t needed and such stressful environments could not be healthy for their child. An excursion to the restroom gave Yuuki enough time to get a handle on her feelings so she didn’t let her raging hormones fly off the handle.  


It may be hypocritical of her to be angry at his use of their baby as a weapon against her, but she was currently using him or her to her own advantage, to escape his stifling and overbearing opinion on her involvement.  


When the brunette returned from her restroom break, Yori was visibly more comfortable. Kaname appeared unaffected by whatever she had shared with him, so Yuuki didn’t press for answers.   


She trusted her lover inexplicably. She knew nothing untoward was going on behind her back. Kaname would never cheat on her. After everything he had done for her, hiding her away at Cross Academy and watching over her while she was there, Yuuki knew he would never do anything to hurt her.   


She would let it go. Kaname had promised to refrain from hiding things from her. When Yori was gone he would fill her in.   


So Yuuki turned to her friend, shoving a small piece of lined notebook paper across the table. Written in her more elegant script, Yuuki had a list of flowers for the tables’ centerpiece.   


“What do you think of gladiolus, snapdragons, and magnolias with some acorn and ivy?”  


Yori studied a comprehensive list of flowers and their meanings. “I don’t think you want magnolia. Too many unrelated meanings. How about bird of paradise instead?”  


 The two females dove into preparation for the gala and would not resurface until it was time to send the human home.   


xxxtheQueen’sSacrificexxx  


Yori’s visits became more frequent after that day.   


Yuuki paid no mind to it. She was actually quite happy to have the girl around. She loved Aidou dearly, but the blonde vampire was so prone to dramatics and Akatsuki was her orange haired shadow.   


Not to mention the Aristocrats made a habit of predicting what she needed before she even knew she wanted it and had it in front of her before she could ask for it. Yuuki could act normal around Yori, like she was any other woman having a baby.  


Yuuki cursed when her fangs extended mid-sentence. She didn’t even have to look down to know Aidou was kneeling beside her chair (and it would be Aidou because it was Akatsuki four hours earlier). She carded her hand through his soft blonde locks, gently tugging his head to the side and pressed down on the juncture of his neck until her fangs broke skin.   


She drank deeply, savoring the slightly sweet taste of Aidou’s blood. She unlatched her jaws, her tongue running over the tender and still weeping wound, eliciting a shiver from the male. The skin knitted itself back together.  


The whole event took less than a minute. In precisely forty-two seconds, Yuuki had gotten her fill of blood, healed all signs that she had drank from Aidou, and the blonde was back in his position three feet behind her chair.   


Yuuki swept her tongue across her bottom lip, sucking up the last drops of ruby red blood.  


She flushed when she turned back to Yori only to find her friend staring at her avidly.   


“Sorry about that.” She apologized, “I can’t help it when a blood craving strikes. All I can think about is how I need blood now and I can’t function again until I drink.”  


“That’s fine, Yuuki-chan. I’ve never seen you, or any of the Night Class, feed before. I was . . .”  


Yuuki grabbed Yori’s forearm. “You’ll tell me if I ever scare you? You don’t need to keep me company every day if you’re afraid I might go after your blood.”  


“It’s fine, Yuuki,” she repeated. “I was going to say interesting. And more than a little intimate. I felt like I should have looked away.”  


Yuuki’s face darkened. She coughed to clear her throat. “Yes, well, sharing blood is special among vampires. They are discriminate about who they drink from and who they allow to drink from them. Essentially, it’s a symbol of trust and love, so we’re very picky. We don’t let just anyone drink. Kaname and I especially. The blood of a Pureblood is powerful. Kaname and I drink from one another, but no other vampire will ever feed from us.”   


Yori was fascinated by the little insight to vampire life and bombarded Yuuki with more questions.   


The Pureblood spent several hours correcting the misconception humans had of the vampire race. They did not burn in the sun, but its rays were irritating and capable of making them ill. Purebloods could handle sunlight the best of all the classes, but any vampire that lived long enough could build up tolerance.  


She had been surprised to learn about the synthetic blood tablets the Night Class had been consuming at the Academy. It relieved her to know that they weren’t snacking on the students and somehow wiping the memory of them being bitten from their minds.  


Yori had asked why Yuuki wasn’t taking the blood tablets and sparing her friends from having to be on hand twenty-four seven to sustain her. The Pureblood Princess had stuttered as she replied she couldn’t keep it down. She had not been appreciative of Yori’s likening it to a human’s morning sickness.   


When she looked at the situation objectively, Yuuki could admit her body rejecting the fake blood was the vampire equivalent of a human’s morning sickness. But Yuuki ignored the similarities. The lack of morning sickness was one of the perks of vampiric pregnancy, the other being the shorter gestation period, and the expecting mother was in no hurry to think of the one side effect she would have hated had she still been human.   


“All vampires have a unique ability,” she explained to Yori, who was now leaning across the table and listening attentively. “Aidou can manipulate ice and Akatsuki fire. Purebloods have more. Kaname is capable of anything he puts his mind to. Sometimes, when his mind wanders, he accidentally burns holes in the walls.”  


Yuuki couldn’t help but giggle, recalling all the occasions in which her brother had done so.  


“What about you?” Yori asked.  


“Me?” Yuuki’s giggles end abruptly.  


“Yes,” her friend pressed. “What can you do?”  


Yuuki hesitated, unsure if she should answer that question. Kaname had warned her to be careful with her powers, how she utilized them and who she informed about them. She glanced over her shoulder at Aidou. The blonde was calm and collected.   


She turned to face the honey haired girl again. If Aidou wasn’t freaking out, Yuuki figured the knowledge was safe to share. If Kaname didn’t want the knowledge out, Aidou would have been frantically making excuses as he pushed Yori out of the room.   


“Well,” she began slowly, “I’m good at breaking memory spells. Kaname-nii-sama is really good at them, but the one time he cast it on me I had shattered it in a couple of hours. There’s the telekinesis. Watch.”  


Yori’s brown eyes were riveted on the papers scattered across the table that shuffled together to form neat, organized piles. Not once did Yuuki touch them physically. They moved of their own accord.   


“Amazing,” she whispered.  


“And I can still use Artemis.”  


Yori reeled back at that revelation. “How? I thought that was an anti-vampire weapon? You said those types of weapons hurt a vampire when they touch one.”  


Yuuki shrugged, unable to explain the phenomenon. “I don’t know why it doesn’t hurt. I had fully intended to never touch Artemis again. It was pure accident that I did. It was on the ground and I unthinkingly picked it up. I think it’s because of my mother. I know she could wield it too.”  


Her hand was drifting to the hip the silver rod was holstered on. Yuuki snapped out of her daze when Yori spoke, snatching her hand back as casually as she could.  


“That was careless of you, though, Yuuki,” her friend scolded. “I think I need a drink.”  


Yori stood on unsteady legs and crossed the room to the wine counter. She returned with two wine glasses half full of a dark red wine.   


Yuuki tried to protest that she didn’t need the ‘liquid courage’ but Yori shoved the glass in her hands. “I know you don’t but I do. A toast,” she stated. “This is your year. You’re getting married, becoming a queen, and having a baby. Cheers, Yuuki.”  


The Pureblood smiled, tapping her wine glass to Yori’s. “Cheers.” Bringing it to her mouth, she drained it quickly.  


Yuuki knew instantly that something was wrong.   


Her vision swam, quickly fading to black. She could vaguely hear Aidou shouting, but she couldn’t make out any words. It was like she was underwater.   


The last thing she saw before she fell unconscious was Yori’s face, alight with pain and eyes swimming with tears that fell freely down her cheeks.

  



	5. Chapter 5

Yuuki woke with a start. Two slim hands automatically flew to her stomach. She couldn’t feel the fluttering. She couldn’t feel her child!

Her breaths started coming in quick pants. She raised one hand to cover her mouth to repress the need to vomit.

‘It’s okay,’ she thought to herself. ‘He’s not always moving. Your baby is fine. As soon as you feed you’ll feel him move. There’s nothing to worry about. He’s fine.’ With each repetition, unconsciously referring to the baby as a he, Yuuki gradually brought her breathing under control. No longer worried for the baby’s safety, she could think about herself.

Her throat was burning. How long had it been since she drank? Given the fierceness which with her throat felt like it was one fire, Yuuki guessed she had been unconscious for several hours, probably close to twelve. No matter how hard she willed them retract, her fangs stubbornly remained.

She felt dizzy and light-headed, a combination of her lack of blood and whatever Yori had slipped into her wine to knock her out.

‘Yori!’ the Pureblood vampire jackknifed it a sitting position.

What had her best friend done to her? And why? Why would Yori kidnapped her? How did Yori kidnap her when Aidou was in the room? Had she done something to him, too?

Yuuki could feel tears coming to her eyes. If Yori hurt Aidou it would be her fault, because the Aristocrat was there to protect her.

The brunette shook her head forcefully. She couldn’t think like that now. She had to escape. To find blood, or she would weaken and waste away and then she would never get out. She had to act now while she still had the energy.

Yuuki turned critical eyes to take in the room around her. There was absolutely no light, but that was no concern for a vampire. She could see each detail in the room as well as if it was lit.

She was in a rather luxurious cell. She had been resting on a soft mattress, and when she swung her bare feet over the edge and set them on the ground, Yuuki felt a soft, velvet plush carpet. Unbelievably enough, there was a mini fridge in the opposite corner of the bed.

The woman crossed the cell in seven long strides and knelt beside the appliance. A blast of refrigerated air hit her when she opened the door. Yuuki hadn’t realized how warm her cell was until she had opened the fridge, and proceeded to open and close it a few more times.

The only content of the mini fridge was metal thermoses. Rows of them, stacked neatly. A quick count told her that there were twenty-four total. Yuuki lifted one and gave it a curious shake. It was heavy and viscous. She looped a finger through the top and unscrewed it.

The scent of blood washed over her and she was guzzling the contents of the thermos before she could think. She threw it to the side and drained a second and third thermos.

Thirst sated temporarily, Yuuki returned to the provided bed. She found herself able to think more clearly now that part of her wasn’t focused on finding blood. While she was glad that whoever had taken her wasn’t going to leave her to starve, Yuuki shivered at the idea of drinking the cold blood again.

When it didn’t come fresh from a human or another vampire, it tasted flat and lifeless.

Now to put her brain to answering the questions her panicked mind had come up with.

Yori had betrayed her. The human had drugged her, and Aidou too, most likely, and delivered her here. The only person Yori could give Yuuki to would be Sara, which beggared the question, how did Yori get involved with the Pureblood and why did she force her to kidnap Yuuki?

The latter was rather obvious. With his pregnant fiancée in her dungeons, Sara had leverage against Kaname. Her brother wouldn’t hesitate to do whatever was necessary to see her safe and unharmed back in their manor.

And Sara would ruthlessly use her against him. Dangling her well-being as insurance that Kaname comply with her demands.

Yuuki’s heart wrenched at the thought of Kaname. What if Yori had gotten to her brother too?

She curled into the mattress, burying her face within the pillow to hide her tears. She wanted to be home. She wanted Kaname’s strong arms wrapped around her. She thirsted for his blood. She wished to hear him say “I love you,” softly when he kissed her forehead before bed.

Yuuki cried silently until her tears ran out and her eyes stung from the saltiness and lack of moisture.

* * *

 

Yuuki startled awake for the second time in a span of a few hours to the sound of footsteps echoing outside her cell door.

‘Several footsteps,’ she corrected straining her ears. At least four different ones. Two of them were heavier than the last, which was softer and sounded more muted, as if the person was wearing socks. And the last one reminded the brunette of how Yori walked.

Yuuki brushed at her eyes to remove any traces that she had been crying and settled herself once more on the bed.

There was a light click of a key being turned, then the door swung open.

* * *

 

Two of her human pets entered first, side by side, and moved to stand on either side of the doorway. Sara paused in the doorway, pandering to her desire to bear witness to the false princess’s hysterics when she saw her.

Sara in no way got her wish. Instead, she was the one infuriated. The brat was reclining on the bed in the corner, glowing crimson eyes gazing steadily at the ceiling above. They didn’t even flicker her direction when the door open.

Yuuki Kuran was acting like she didn’t have a care in the world.

Sara unclenched her fists before she broke a nail. How dare that brat? She was her captive! She was not in her daddy’s academy or her brother’s mansion. She should be terrified out of her wits, not lying there dismissing a Pureblood stronger than her.

She didn’t deserve to be called a Pureblood. She had not been raised one. Her pitiful life had been spent among the human trash that overpopulated the world. The Kuran girl was no better than them for associating with them, for advocating peace with humans.

Humans were nothing more than food. They were unbelievably dimwitted creatures. It was all too easy for Sara to manipulate their feeble loyalties emotions. They were entertaining toys when they believed she would grant them immortality.

A cruel smile stretched her lips. If the location was not enough to shake the young Kuran, then Sara knew what would.

“Good morning, darling.” The human’s eyes darted to her and just as quickly returned to the ceiling. “I do hope your stay hasn’t been taxing so far.”

Sara waited patiently for a reply.

“Not at all,” Yuuki said with a smile. “The décor’s very soothing.”

The blonde’s eyes turned glacial. Either the once human girl was a very good actor or she thought sincerity would get under her skin. It rankled Sara that it was true. The genuine smile and joy on her face annoyed her. Did the stupid girl not understand the concept of prisoner?

Sara sank down onto the edge of the bed, curling one hand around its occupant’s forearm. “I’m glad you find it to your tastes, darling. Because you are going to be enjoying it for some time.”

“How long?”

Sara trailed her pointer finger up the center of her arm, sharp fingernail leaving behind a thin line of blood. “Don’t be in such a hurry to leave. You and I are going to have a lot of fun. And if you behave,” she dug her nails into the fleshy arm in her grip, rejoicing at how the human gasped, “I might even let your friend visit.”

Sara waved an arm imperiously. One of her handmaidens stepped outside and came back with her newest pet.

“Yori was ever so grateful of my promise to make her one of us. All I asked of her was one . . . little . . . favor.” The malevolence in the last three words could have cut steel. “I didn’t think she could do it, bring you to me. But here you are. Clearly, Kuran does not care for you as much as he claims to.”

“Kaname-nii-sama will come for me,” she said quietly, but the look in her eyes did not match the strong words she spoke.

That’s what she wanted to see. Those wide, innocent, doe-y eyes were alive with pain and insecurity. This, Sara could use. Before long, the girl would break, begging to return to the humans. And when that time came, Sara would give her back to Kuran.

The devastation on his face when his lovely sister came back to him broken beyond repair and wanting nothing to do with him would be entertainment for a century.

It was all so very poetic. Kuran had planned so carefully so that he might reintroduce the sister no one knew about, and just when she was starting to become accepted, Sara had whisked her away. Just as quickly as she had entered to world of the night, the human would be leaving it.

Sara rose gracefully. “We’ll talk again soon, darling.”

The cute human girl and her other two pets dutifully followed her. Sara nimbly locked the door again, slipping the small silver key into the pocket of her voluminous skirts.

“You did wonderfully, my darling,” crooned the Pureblood, raising a hand to caress Yori’s face. “But your task is not yet over. Kuran will suspect you if you disappear after his sister has. I need you to return to him while he fruitless hunts for her. Can you do that for me, darling?”

The human knelt. “Yes, my lady,” she intoned.

“Good, then go.”

“Yes, my lady.”

* * *

 

Yori waited until Sara had turned her back, silently dismissing her, before climbing to her feet. She strode off down the stone hallway and up the stairs, not once looking back at the door behind which her friend was locked.

One day, Yuuki would understand why she had done what she had. Yori only hoped that she would forgive her.

The brunette navigated the maze of hallways with practiced ease, reaching the ground floor and slipping out the front door. A short walk down the driveway and out the electronically locked gate, and Yori was on the streets.

She turned right, walking briskly for seven blocks. There, are the corner as promised, was a black limo.

Yori slid in the back seat, reclining in the middle. “You know where to go.”

“Of course,” came Aidou Hanabusa’s voice from the driver’s seat. The engine thrummed and the floor vibrated as the vehicle came to life, and the two were gliding up the street, heading for the Kuran manor.


	6. Chapter 6

Sara would be the first to admit that she had big plans. But what she was doing was necessary. She was determined not to fall prey to the Purebloods' habit of losing purpose. She needed to prove her purpose. Her parents. The Kurans. Shizuka Hio. All of them had wasted their purpose. What was the point of an immortal life if you were going to commit suicide?

Sara had witnessed her parents’ suicides. They had the gall to apologize to her before they killed themselves with a pair of anti-vampire silver knives right to the heart.

That night she had sworn to herself that she would never end up like them. And so her scheme was born. There was no stronger purpose than being Queen.

It had been very irksome when the monarchy was abolished by the current Kuran King and the Council of Elders became the new system of government. It was an unexpected and unanticipated issue, but Sara was adaptable. The Vampire Council was new and in no way prepared to deal with the responsibility of leading a nation. Eventually, they would make a mistake, fall prey to corruption, turn into a tyranny, and the night world would be demanding their blood as penance.

Admittedly, Sara worried when the Council did not fall in the first three centuries, and when it saw a millennia in action, she feared that the system was what vampires needed.

But if that was true, what about her purpose? What was she to do if she was not going to be Queen? What was the point of being alive?

Sara refused to accept that her purpose had vanished. It tested the limits of her patience, but she had waited ten thousand years for the Council of Elders to meet its end, renewing her purpose.

Then she nearly lost it again when Kaname produced an unknown sister to be his Queen.

Just thinking about the human made her furious. For a woman currently at her enemy’s mercy, she was remarkably uncaring of what Sara would do to her.

The human rat was the reason the Pureblood had to change her plans once again. A plan perfected down to the smallest detail by ten thousand years’ worth of plotting and maneuvering and manipulation. All of that was ruined by her appearance.

Sara cast her gaze about the room, light blue eyes settling on a pretty red haired teen. The human practically tripped over herself when Sara motioned for her to approach the chaise she lay on. There were no pleasantries this time. She took great pleasure in causing the human pain as she drank her life’s blood.

The hot liquid splashed down her throat. This girl’s blood had a hint of spice to it. It was delightful, and it calmed her anger. Sara took a couple more mouthfuls, leaving the human dazed from lack of blood and high from endorphins.

“There, my darling. As promised, I have made you a vampire.”

The girl blinked, her green eyes now red from bloodlust. Sara ordered her away, a malicious smile creeping across her face. 

The vampire thought it truly amusing that her handmaidens believed she would turn them into one of her kind. They all served her, offering their blood freely, for the chance to become immortal. But Sara would never grant them everlasting life. Each and every one of her girls would join her army of Level E’s because there was no place for former humans in her kingdom. Humans were such stupid and pitiful creatures.

Sara’s mood perked when her ears caught the sound of Yori’s even footsteps. Her newest handmaiden was pinnacle in the destruction of the Kurans. Both of them. Kaname had chosen the human so he had to be cut out of her end goals. By taking his precious sister she was already halfway there. All she had to do was drain her in front of him.

Then she would be the last Pureblood. But that was fine. Sara was perfectly capable of ruling by herself.

The brunette went straight to the Pureblood’s side, sinking to one knee and bowing her head. “I have news, my lady.”

“Speak, darling.”

Given permission to look up, Yori lifted her head. “Kaname was in a rage when I returned, my lady. He nearly killed to two Aristocrats acting as her bodyguards. He promised to turn them to sand if they didn’t find Yuuki quickly.”

Sara’s lips curled. That was a better reaction than she had hoped for. Maybe Kaname would take out all of his lackeys for her.

“I persuaded one of them to meet with you. He is unhappy with Kaname’s treatment of him,” Yori continued.

“Oh,” Sara said, interested. “And who would that be?”

“Aidou Hanabusa, my lady.”

Well, wasn’t that something. Kuran’s self-proclaimed best friend was fed up with him. It might be easier than she had previously thought to topple Kaname to from his throne.

“There’s also a problem, my lady. With Yuuki.” Sara’s blue eyes narrowed. “She had run out of blood.”

Sara shuddered delicately in disgust. That vile human didn’t have any sense of propriety. The blood that she had so generously supplied was intended to last her a week. The human was so barbaric, unable to even moderate herself properly.

It was another thing that separated her from that creature in her cellblock. Vampires could eat human food without issue if they wished to. Sara couldn’t understand why any self-respecting vampire would lower themselves to eating their food source’s food source. It was utterly degrading.

And the abominable excuse for a Pureblood liked to consume human food on top of drinking more blood than she needed. Unfortunately, Sara couldn’t deny her blood. She needed the female Kuran to be healthy for the grand finale.

But the filth’s eating habits could work to her advantage. If she wanted to waste blood by drinking so often, Sara would be glad to keep her stocked. After all, the more blood she had to harvest for her prisoner, the more Level E’s she’d be creating.

The Pureblood petted Yori like she would a cat. “That’s no problem at all, my beautiful Yori. I will see to it that she gets all the sustenance she needs.”

* * *

The dark haired man was silent as Hanabusa handed over a message for him. He and Akatsuki shifted tensely, waiting for their lord to share what was written.

Kaname read the missive twice, just to make sure the letters on the page weren’t changing.

_K,_

_I hope this letter assuages all concerns for Yuuki’s well-being._

_Shirabuki is personally seeing that Yuuki has all the blood she needs. Your girl will not suffer from starvation. Although she does feed an awful lot._

_Yuuki is still fine. Bored, but fine. She has not been harmed and Shirabuki doesn’t have any plans to hurt her yet. She sleeps and drinks usually. She cries out for you at night. It’s annoying._

_In other news, Shirabuki’s scheme has been moving forward. She believes she can keep Yuuki hidden from you until the Winter Solstice. I am positive she intends to see you both dead on that day._

_She also intends to throw a birthday gala for herself. She’s inviting everybody. Even the Level C’s. Yeah, I know. Blindsided me, too. Anyway, Shirabuki’s going to announce her contention for the crown, challenge Yuuki’s claim._

_And she’ll win, obviously, so long as she keeps the girl locked up. Better move faster._

_W.  
_

Kaname shot the letter at Akatsuki with a flick of his wrist. The Aristocrat caught it nimbly, fingertips flaring orange as he called on his magic to burn it.

“How is Yuuki-sama?” Aidou worriedly asked.

“Well,” the Pureblood answered. “She is being cared for and fed. I only worry for when she starts craving my blood. We don’t have any feasible way to slip it to her and when don’t know when it’ll start, so our first priority is rescuing Yuuki.”

He saw the other two flinch at his mentioning of her blood cravings. The insatiable need for the father’s blood didn’t start until the fifth or sixth month. It was the major cause of increased blood cravings at the end of the pregnancy, because Yuuki would want his blood on top of what she had already been taking from Aidou and Akatsuki.

It was very possible that that particular craving would strike early for his love as well. It wouldn’t matter how much blood Sara gave her if none of it belonged to him. Kaname did not know what would happen if Yuuki did not drink his blood, but he could imagine the possibilities.

She might react like a Level E, driven only by her bloodlust, and descend into insanity. Or she might hurt herself trying to break free and return to his side. But she would be no match for Sara that far into her pregnancy. Plus, he couldn’t imagine his love ever putting their children at such risk. Yuuki had managed to choke down blood tablets one day, despite how her pregnancy usually made her unable to consume them. He supposed it was possible that she could go without somehow. But Kaname wasn’t going to risk that.

If all went according to plan, Yuuki would be home before that even became a problem. The Pureblood was taking no chances. He knew exactly how vicious Sara could be from before he had been reborn. He was not going to let her learn about Yuuki’s pregnancy.

“However,” the relief on the cousins’ faces died. “Sara is going to publicly challenge her.”

“Challenge her?” Hanabusa exclaimed. “That would be completely unfair to Yuuki-sama!”

“That’s the point.” Akatsuki said dryly. “If she issues a challenge and our lady does not answer . . .” The orange haired vampire didn’t have to finish. All three of them knew the consequences. If Yuuki refused the challenge she would be denied any right to the throne, even if it technically belonged to her.

Under normal circumstances, it would be a risky move for Sara. Even if she won whatever challenge she set, there was no guarantee she’d become Queen. The custom worked liked a contest, with Kaname judging the winner.

There was no way he would choose Sara over Yuuki, but with Yuuki squirreled away and unable to compete, she would be declared as unfit to be Queen.

Akatsuki had no doubt his lord would chose his love anyway, even if it did cause riots amongst his followers that were overjoyed for the return of the Olde Ways. Kaname believed whole heartedly in them, but he would ignore them, break them, and spit on them if they kept him from Yuuki in any way.

Still, it was a wall in Kaname’s perfectly laid out plans. While the concerns about Yuuki getting the blood she required were serious, this new situation was even more so. It would derail everything Kaname stood for when he chose his lover over their customs.

“This changes nothing. Freeing Yuuki is still our goal. The sooner the better. Sara’s birthday is on June twelfth. That’s when she’ll make her move.”

“The twelfth? But that’s only three weeks away!” Aidou shouted, hands gripping his blonde hair tight enough to cause pain. Not that he seemed to notice. “We can’t get her out by then. There’s not enough time.”

Kaname pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes to tune out Hanabusa’s wailing. “We must,” he said simply. “I will not lose my Yuuki.”

Kaname spoke with unwavering faith. The certainty of his voice and the strength of his words embolden Aidou and the blonde remembered why he was serving the Pureblood unquestioningly. Because Kaname was going to change the world, freeing vampires from having to hide all the time or make excuses.

And Kaname was turning the vampire world on its head for Yuuki, so Aidou couldn’t flake out now. He was her protector. He would do whatever was necessary to rescue her.


	7. Chapter 7

Yuuki had originally thought that it would be impossible for her to tell how much time she spent confined in her cell worthy of a five star hotel. Given how she now slept whenever she grew tired, which could be as many as three times a day, she could not use her sleeping and waking powers to keep track of the passing days.

She had wanted to keep track of time for the sole purpose of being lucid during the human’s daylight hours. That was when Sara, who despite the millennia of years to her name was very much a pampered Pureblood, would be sleeping. The moment she was struggling to function normally, weakened by the effects of the sun. Sara adhered strictly to the traditional views of a vampire, coming out at twilight and returning just before dawn.

Midday was when Yuuki would have the best chance to escape. The human girls posing as guards in the hall outside were no match for her. Only another Pureblood could be, which was why she had to plan her prison break for a time when Sara would be unable to interfere.

Sara had made what seemed to be a lost cause easier by dropping by personally during the vampire morning, the equivalent of the human world’s night.

Mostly she came to tear apart Yuuki’s spirit, using carefully picked words and implying that her brother must not care for her as greatly as she believed because he had not come to her rescue yet. The Kuran princess reluctantly acknowledged that the dirty tactic was working.

Yuuki had mixed feelings about Kaname’s non-reaction thus far.

Her first response had been, predictably, tears, because she was hormonal and it didn’t take much to set off the waterworks. The second had been hurt of the heart wrenching and gut twisting kind. She wasn’t the only one in danger. Their child was too.

Yuuki had come to understand how her lover operated during their last few months at Cross Academy; watching, listening and even participating to an extent as he expertly provoked responses and guided decisions like one moved pieces on a chess board. He manipulated without seeming to, knocked over a seemingly innocent and unconnected domino and sent them toppling in every direction. His plans had plans.

So she understood how he might bid his time and lure Sara into thinking she had won, only to turn around and spring a trap on the woman. But not in this case. Not when she was pregnant. She didn’t want to believe he was taking unnecessary risks with their unborn child.

Putting together those facts, Yuuki came to the conclusion that Kaname was as trapped as she was. Not in the physical sense, but that Sara had tied his hands somehow so that he could not act without retribution.

That meant it was down to her to free herself.

Yuuki was certain it could be done. Sara, whilst be a Pureblood, was the only vampire she would have to contend with. And the brunette knew how to fight vampires. She still could wield Artemis, her trusty anti-vampire scythe. She would have to relocate it first, as Sara had had one of her pets remove it from its sheathe beneath her skirt, but it would give Yuuki and edge because the other Pureblood would expect it to burn her since it was an anti-vampire weapon.

It had been five days since Sara’s first visit. That was also how long it had been since she had laid eyes on Yori, which was good news for her former best friend because Yuuki wanted nothing more than to shake her by the neck for betraying her like this.

Yori consumed most of the vampire’s thoughts. Yuuki simply could not understand why the one person who understood her, who never asked questions, who accepted her when Yuuki revealed herself as a vampire, who was helping her plan an opulent wedding-coronation combo, who cried when Yuuki asked her to be the godmother, would drug her, putting her baby at risk, and give her into the hands of the enemy.

Yori had undergone a dramatic change since the end of the school year. Yuuki couldn’t recognize the girl who used to be her best friend, always trying to mother her and dressing her wounds, insisting that she didn’t get enough sleep, or teasing her about her relationship with Kaname when she was still human. Yuuki had attributed the shift in personality and behavior to Yori learning about the vampire world hidden within her own and having to suddenly adjust to the idea of her best friend being a blood sucking creature of the night.

The brunette blinked when the door swung open, permitting two young women to scuttle in. Almost immediately the scent of the blood they carried in the hand held coolers filled the room. They never once looked at the vampire lying listlessly on her bed. Just restocked the fridge and retreated to the safety of the hallway as quickly as possible.

That was Yuuki’s more definitive and accurate way of monitoring the passage of time from day to night. Her blood supply was refilled at noon on the dot. The two humans thought that the safest time to do so, when the sun was at its highest and its strongest. They always assumed that Yuuki was sleeping like their Mistress, and Yuuki let them continue to believe in that notion.

It worked to her advantage if they were unaware she could be awake during the middle of their day. It would be easy to knock them out, slip out the unlocked door, and be back in Kaname’s arms before Sara even realized she was missing.

However, Yuuki was waiting to make her move. No doubt Sara had two dozen humans between her and the closest exit, and while Yuuki was strong enough to handle them, she only needed one to alert their Mistress and her plan would go up in smoke. If that happened, Yuuki wouldn’t have another chance to escape. So she would bid her time until Sara became lax, convinced in her victory.

Yuuki was confident that she could wait for Sara to make the first mistake. So long as she had a steady supply of blood on hand for when her blood cravings struck, she would be fine.

* * *

Almost as if she had jinxed it, Sara informed her that her patience with her eating habits had run thin and that she wasn’t going to provide human filth with the amount of fresh blood she had been giving Yuuki any longer.

Yuuki had to bit hard on the inside of her cheek to keep from saying that she need that much blood, that she wasn’t wasting it as Sara believed. Unbelievable as it was, the blonde seemed not to know that Yuuki was pregnant.

And while she needed to drink a few liters of blood a day to satisfy her cravings and insure that her baby was healthy, Yuuki would willingly drink blood tablets before she revealed that weakness to Sara.

“Maybe now you’ll tell me what I wish to know.” Silence met her demand.

Sara’s picturesque face twisted when she refused to respond, and quick as a whip she had raked her manicured nails across Yuuki’s cheek.

“You don’t deserve to be Queen. You’re nothing more than a human Kaname took pity on!” the head of the Shirabuki family snarled. “You cannot help him like I can. You’ve gone and filled his head with unnatural thoughts, living peacefully alongside the human trash.”

“I love him. He’s my brother and I’m his sister. There is no one better for him than me,” Yuuki answered quietly. “Kaname would never love you.”

Sara sneered. “Love is unnecessary. It serves no purpose.”

“Then I feel pity for you. A life without love is a long and lonely life.” Unbidden, Yuuki felt tears build up in her eyes just thinking about the romantic moments she had shared with Kaname and how there might not be anymore.  

Her love for her brother shaped her life. Even when she couldn’t remember her years as a vampire and promising to one day marry Kaname and live a life like their parents, he was the center of her universe. Her heart beat every time she heard his name and it took all her control to not blush and sound like an idiot when talking to him. She cried when he had to leave her.

Yuuki couldn’t imagine going through life without love, not when Kaname was never far from her.

“I’ll show you the fruits of love.” The brunette stared at her nonplussed. “Yori,” she called, raising her voice slightly.

The summoned girl stepped around the corner of the door, short cropped hair snapping at her brisk movements, and moved to stand at her Mistress’s side. “Yes, my lady?”

Yuuki’s heart constricted painfully at the sight of her best friend’s heart shaped face, but Yori only had eyes for Sara.

The ancient vampire curled her fingers around Yori’s jaw, turning her face until she met Yuuki’s gaze straight on, hazel eyes blank. “This,” Sara drawled, running one long finger along the underside of the human’s jaw, “is what happens when you love. You get hurt.

“Isn’t that right, my darling?” she directed at the silent Yori still motionless in her embrace. “Your love for your friend shattered when she denied you your wish.”

“That’s right, my lady,” Yori answered.

Yuuki felt lightheaded. Her best friend had been in love with her? That didn’t make any sense. Why wouldn’t she have said something instead of pushing Yuuki into admitting her feelings for Kaname?

“Why don’t I give you a minute alone with Kuran? Would you like that, sweet Yori?”

It was a sickening display. Even if a minute alone was not what Yori wanted, Sara’s tone left no room for argument. She wasn’t asking what Yori wanted at all, just treating her like a doll or a child that was unable to decide for herself. Yuuki hated seeing Yori reduced to this. Even if Yori had betrayed her, the amount of control Sara had over her just wasn’t right.

Long blonde hair flowing behind her, the Pureblood swiftly exit. The second the door swung shut with a snap Yori darted forward. Yuuki gaped, flummoxed, as she knelt and desperately latched onto her pale hands.

“I’m sorry, Yuuki. I know you have no right to ask this, but I need you to trust me.” Yori’s big, round hazel eyes gazed pleadingly up at her, conveying her sincerity. “I don’t have time to explain. Take this.” Something solid dropped out of the sleeve of Yori’s shirt and into her palm. Yori smoothly wrapped her hands around Yuuki’s and folded them over the object.

“You won’t be here much longer, I promise you. I have to go now. Sara’s meeting with Aidou. Take care of yourself, okay?”

And then Yori was gone, leaving Yuuki to stare at the spot she had been kneeling in a stupor. Aidou wasn’t a victim? He was involved in this too? And what didn’t Yori have time to explain?

The vampire unclenched her hand, revealing a small plastic medicine container. She popped the lid and tipped it over the palm of her hand. Several small white tablets spilled out. Blood tablets.

Where had Yori gotten a bottle of blood tablets and why had she given them to her?

Yuuki replaced the cap and hid the unlabeled bottle under her pillow. Puzzled as she was, she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. There was no denying she would need them if Sara held true to her threat to cut back on the amount of blood she gave her.

The tablets weren’t a real substitute for blood, and did not taste nearly as satisfying, and Yuuki really wasn’t supposed to be drinking them, but she would do so. She had managed to choke them down when she had the Hunter’s Association over for tea, so it should be easier the second time around.

But were they safe to eat, coming from Yori’s hand?

Yuuki curled in on herself. How she wished Kaname was there. He would have known what to do. Her brother had all the answers.

“Onii-sama, where are you?”

* * *

Aidou Hanabusa was already present when Yori quietly slipped into Shirabuki’s grand lounge where she conducted her business like a court.

Seeing the two of them before her, the lone human in the room was stunned by how similar they were in appearance, almost eerily so. Aidou’s eyes were a much lighter shade of blue and his hair was a darker blond than Sara’s, but other than that the two could have been mistaken for twins. Had she not known Sara was a Pureblood, she probably would have assumed the pair was brother and sister.

“You would give your loyalty to me so easily?” Sara’s laugh was tinkling. The sound sent shivers down Yori’s spine. “How could I trust a man like that? That is why woman are more dependable. They can be trusted to look beyond their own interests and personal gain.”

Aidou dropped smoothly and elegantly to one knee, fisting his right hand over his breast. “What can I do to prove my honor?”

“Bring me Kaname’s blood.”

The Aristocrat unwaveringly promised to carry out her request.

“Go with him, my sweet Yori.” Sara’s head tilted in the direction of the retreating male. “Make sure that he does not endeavor to deceive me.”

Yori bowed her head in acquiescence and slipped out into the hallway after the newest recruit to Sara’s side of the war. Yori had no doubt that it was war that was brewing. “Can you truly get his blood.”

“I can.”


	8. Chapter 8

Kaname sat stiffly at the head of his elongated dining table. The room, while large and spacious for the small group of vampires occupying the house, had never felt this empty. His dark maroon eyes were constantly drawn to the chair on his right.

Yuuki’s vacant chair.

He missed his love desperately. Their separation was a necessary evil, for Sara needed to be under the impression that she held some semblance of power over him. But Kaname had not realized how much pain it would cause him to lose Yuuki a second time, especially since he only just got his sister back.

Kaname had thought he was prepared for this part of his plan. Had he not already done it once? For ten years he waited in the shadows, standing on the edges of Yuuki’s periphery vision, watching over her with the then human girl none the wiser. Surely he could manage another two weeks until Sara made her move?

There were too many pieces in motion currently. Too many chances for mistakes to be made. Mistakes that could cost him his Yuuki and their children. Kaname’s heart was at war with his mind.

Logically, it would be best to wait until June eleventh or even the twelfth to free Yuuki. As busy as the other Pureblood would be with her party and her plans to challenge his sister for the right to be Queen and after three weeks of no response from Kaname, she would let down her guard, confident in her win. In the long run, this scenario was the better option for Kaname’s overall scheme.

He had told Akatsuki and Aidou that rescuing Yuuki was top priority. In a sense it was, because Sara would know something was up if no attempt was made. But Kaname hadn’t intended to perform his jailbreak until the other several millennia old vampire was distracted and least expecting it.

But his heart screamed that he had no time to wait. His most recent intelligence said that Sara was denying her prisoner any form of blood. And even if Yuuki had managed to consume blood tablets once, they would not sustain the life growing within her. She needed true blood.

Another point in favor of freeing Yuuki sooner was that Kaname didn’t want Sara to learn about her pregnancy. Already the Pureblood’s lack of knowledge was harmful to his love. She wasn’t receiving the proper care. But it would be disastrous should Sara learn the truth.

He didn’t want to think that Sara would be capable of murdering an unborn child. Children were sacred to vampires, so infrequently were they born. The population of born vampires was already on the decline. With families only having one or two children, the children only replaced the adults.

But Sara was unstable. Like Rido. The brunet feared another incident like RIdo happening. She might kill the fetuses because of who they would be; direct blood of the Ancestor.

“My lord?” Hanabusa called out hesitantly, taking a single step inside the door. “Would now be a good time?”

In response the Pureblood rolled up the sleeve of his white collared shirt up to his elbow and extended his arm. Aidou moved to his side, two items clenched in his hands. The first was a small crystal vile. The second a thermos.

Aidou needed to bring Sara Kaname’s blood in order to prove his loyalty. Kaname had decided it best to wait a couple days, to make it seem as if the ice wielding vampire had truly stolen his target. It would have been suspicious if Aidou had return with his prize immediately.

And it had to be his blood. Hanabusa had suggested that they supplement his own blood in place of Kaname’s, forgetting that the blood of a Pureblood was distinctive. Sara would be able to tell by touch alone when she examined it that it did not hold the power of a Pureblood, and if she couldn’t the scent would certainly reveal the deceit. Either way, Aidou, and by extension Kaname, would be tipping his hand too early.

Kaname dragged a fingernail down the length of his forearm from elbow to wrist. Aidou collected the liquid in the vial, and when it was full switched it out for the thermos.

Sara’s desire for the blood of another Pureblood was concerning, but it was the perfect opportunity to slip Kaname’s blood to Yuuki.

“Go,” the brunet commanded softly once both containers were filled. “Make sure that gets to her.”

The Aristocrat nodded solemnly, ice blue eyes shining with determination. “We’ll get her back, my lord.”

“I know,” Kaname said, watching the other vampire depart. It was only a matter of when. He would not leave her there longer than she already had. By June twelfth Yuuki would be nearly three months along, and the longer he waited the higher the chances were for Sara to discover the pregnancy.

Kaname had absolutely no intention of letting that happen.

* * *

Yuuki grit her teeth against the taste as she choked down another glass of blood flavored water. She had thought, after four days, that it would become easier to drink them, not more difficult. Every swallow served to intensify the burn in her throat, a steady reminder that her body demanding fresh blood and not the synthetic substitute she was drinking.

It was only made worse by the fact that she had to drink a glass nearly every hour to even remotely sate her thirst. She had gone through the first bottle Yori had delivered that same day.

Her former best friend was a topic of confusion for Yuuki. The new Pureblood had no idea what to think of her. It was because of Yori that she was in this situation. Trapped, scared, and alone. But Yori had faithfully delivered a bottle of blood tablets each night, in place of the two humans whose job had been to stock her mini fridge with blood.

Each time she offered small words of comfort. That it wouldn’t be long now and ‘Yuuki, you only need to hang in there a little longer. Kaname will be here soon.’

She had wanted to snarl at Yori. What would she know about what Kaname was doing? Why had she kidnapped Yuuki in the first place? Why did she suddenly seem to care now? Did Yori realize she had made a terrible mistake and thought that bringing her blood tablets and failing words of reassurance would be enough for Yuuki’s heart to break and allow her back in? That she too would be rescued when Kaname came for her?

The door to her cell slid open enough to allow Yori entrance. Yuuki rolled over on her side, putting her back to her once friend. “I don’t want any more tablets. I still have a few.”

Yuuki had even more hidden inside her pillow. One small rip and she had a nice place to hide some tablets so that, should Yori decided to stop bringing her a bottle, she would not starve. Yuuki placed a palm full of tablets within her pillow from each bottle.

“I think you’ll want this, Yuuki,” was the rejoinder.

Said vampire bit back a scoff. Of course she didn’t want blood tablets. They were a cheap replacement for real blood, not to mention supposedly dangerous for her to consume while pregnant. They didn’t care all the nutrients her baby needed.

But Yuuki did need them, because fake blood was better than none at all. She hadn’t felt any ill effects from drinking the tablets yet, but that didn’t mean she wanted to continue to put hers and Kaname’s baby at risk by drinking them like an alcoholic would.

The most wonderful scent permeated the room. Warm and dark and spicy.

“Kaname!” she gasped, shooting off her bed. How was he here?

Yuuki froze when she was not met with the face of her brother. Only Yori, holding a metal thermos from which Kaname’s tantalizing scent was originating. It took her all of a second to realize what that thermos held, for the burning in her throat flared.

Before she could think one hand had snatched the thermos from Yori and the other had found its way to the girl’s throat. “Why do you have Kaname’s blood? What did you do to him?”

Yori’s hazel eyes grew round. The shined with genuine terror. Her weak human hands latched on to Yuuki’s, but she had not chance at removing a vampire’s grip. At one point, Yuuki would have immediately released her friend, hating herself for putting such a fearful expression on her face. But she couldn’t bring herself to care.

The human had tried to convince her that her brother would come for her soon, only to kidnap him like she had Yuuki. They had taken his blood.

 

“Safe.”

Brown orbs narrowed. She released her grip slightly, enough so that Yori could breathe comfortably and talk but Yuuki’s hand stayed there as a reminder that she could take that breath away again. “What’s safe?”

“Kaname-san. He’s fine. Sara doesn’t have him,” Yori spoke hurriedly.

“Then where did this come from? This is _his blood!_ ” Yuuki practically shrieked the last two words as she held up the thermos like it was incriminating evidence. “If Sara doesn’t have him then why do you have this?”

“Aidou-san gave it to me to give to you. Kaname-san said you needed it.”

The Pureblood didn’t hear the second half of Yori’s short explanation. Her mind was reeling at the mention of Aidou. The blond was in on this too? How could he betray her like that? He was supposed to be Yuuki’s protector. Yuuki had thought them to be friends. She trusted him to help her find her feet amongst vampires that would be expecting her to know everything already.

She stumbled back, inadvertently releasing Yori. Why had Aidou betrayed her? Betrayed Kaname?

A pair of warm hands gently cupped her face. Yuuki was forced to look into the heart shaped friend of her onetime friend. “I know this is all confusing to you right now, Yuuki, but Kaname-san insists the less you know at the moment the safer you’ll be. I’m still your friend and so is Aidou-san. Kaname-san has a plan. You’ll be out of her before the twelfth.”

Yuuki slumped against the other girl. The tension she had been carrying ever since she had woken up in Sara’s dungeon bleed out. Of course her brother had a plan. He always had a plan. But now she had confirmation of it and an expected time of when it would come to fruition. If she had kept track of the days right, the twelfth was seventeen days away.

“Can you tell me what’s going on?” Yuuki shamelessly used her cutest puppy dog face which Yori had fallen victim to many times at Cross Academy. Then she had used it to prevent her friend from inquiring into her injuries or why Yuuki had agreed to be a Disciplinary Committee member.

It was still just as effective. Yori’s face softened and she hugged the vampire. “I can’t tell you everything. I don’t even know the whole plan,” she joked. “But I’m here because Kaname-san needs someone to keep an eye on Sara and I was the only one who could get close.

“Now then,” Yori said, lifting the hand that still held the thermos of blood, “drink. Kaname-san went to great efforts to ensure you got this.”

Yuuki obediently drank, guzzling down the familiar blood. In under a minute she had drained it.

Yori smiled softly as she took the empty thermos from Yuuki. “I have to go now, but I’ll be back tomorrow. It’ll be blood tablets though.”

Yuuki didn’t mind. She’d drink a million of those foul tablets if it meant she’d be back in Kaname’s arms. Now that her imprisonment wasn’t endless, it would be easier to continue her diet of blood tablets. She only had to deal with them for seventeen more days.

“Be careful, Yori.”

“I will.”

The door closed behind her and Yuuki could hear the key turning in the lock, once more confining her.

In two and a half weeks she would be home.

Yuuki curled around her stomach, hands lightly brushing over the slight bump. She supposed it wasn’t impossible to be showing this early. She was two and a half months pregnant, and vampire pregnancies were shorter than a human’s. She was probably equivalent of nearly four months, so it was reasonable that she was just starting to show.

The bump wasn’t very noticeable anyway. Yori hadn’t commented on it and even Sara with her sharper sense had no idea she was pregnant.

“Pretty soon your father will be here,” she cooed to the baby. “He’ll get us both out of here. Then we’ll crush Sara together.”

Yuuki had never considered herself a violent person. But Sara deserved her anger. The woman was opposing them for the sake of it. She wanted the power to rule but didn’t actually care about the vampires she would be charged with looking out for. She was more concerned with the humans she kept as pets to admire her.

That woman’s ego had no place wearing a crown. Sara created Level Es like humans didn’t matter. But humans and vampires could get along. Kaien Cross believed it. Kaname believed and so did she.

Yuuki would prove it when she became Queen. Just like she had promised Tamen and the Hunter’s Association, she would make it so that vampires and humans could coexist.


	9. Chapter 9

Seventeen days had never felt so long.

Possibly because Yuuki was never the type of person laze around doing absolutely nothing all day. As a student, her days had been filled with classes, which she desperately tried to pay attention to, but more often than not fell asleep in during due to her duties as one of two disciplinary committee members.

Though she might as well have been the only one for all the work Zero did. Her partner only showed up whenever Kaname was involved, and only then to tell her brother to leave her alone. Given, the then president of the Night Class checked in on Yuuki once a night, but the hunter would vanish as soon as he told Kaname to get lost.

Of course, needing to patrol the grounds for the first two hours the Night students were in class didn’t help matters. It really was unbelievable how many girls (she did find it odd that it was never the human males sneaking out to get a glimpse of the female vampires) would blatantly ignore school rules. The really unbelievable part of it was that Yuuki spent more time in detention than they did, and she was doing what Kaien asked of her.

Once the truth had been revealed, the brunette’s schedule was even more hectic. Thankfully, she didn’t have to worry about her disciplinary responsibilities. By that point Zero had stepped up, a result of Kaname threatening him probably now that she thought about it, but Yuuki couldn’t find it in herself to care.

Tomorrow would be the twelfth of June, and Yuuki was so overjoyed she could have gotten up and danced.

Honestly, the lack of anything to do was more torturous than Sara depriving her of blood. It was an unending stretch of hours that blurred together and allowed her imagination to run rampant, dreaming up all the horrible things the lone Shirabuki could be up to.

Speaking of the woman currently holding her captive, Sara had stopped coming by altogether. So Yori had kept her word, smuggling in a white pill bottle of the red colored tablets nearly every day. It was a necessity at the rate Yuuki was consuming them.

The Pureblood had tried to stretch them out so they’d last longer, but the synthetic blood didn’t satisfy her thirst. So, where she was able to drink them, they had little effect, thus she needed to dissolve as many as six tablets in her water at a time.

She still hid a handful from each bottle in the hole she tore in her pillow, for the rare day when Yori was too busy with Sara to attend to her. There had been four such times so far and it had nearly depleted the vampire’s stock of blood tablets.

The delivery of her blood tablets was still a key part of her Plan B, which was both simultaneously more achievable, because Yori would be easy to subdue if Yuuki couldn’t convince the other girl to simply let her out or leave the cell unlocked, and more unappealing for that reason, because it would be Yori that suffered the consequences of her escape.

Yori hadn’t shared any more information, though she consistently reassured the female vampire that everything was going according to plan. But Yuuki was unbothered by that. She hadn’t expected her friend to be able to tell her more than she already had. It wasn’t how Kaname-onii-sama operated.

Only he knew everything; he held all the cards close to the chest, never letting on even a hint. Everyone around him was given bits and pieces so they could perform a role Kaname had already laid out for them. Kaname’s greatest strength was his intelligence. Her brother could strategize, move people around, and manipulate events similar to a general at war.

The fact alone was why Yuuki wasn’t feeling anxious. No matter what Shirabuki had planned for tomorrow, she knew Kaname was prepared. He had already brought about the deaths of both Rido Kuran and Shizuka Hio, and it was very likely that Sara was going to end up the same.

In retrospect, she had the easiest job. The damsel in distress usually did. After all, she only had to wait patiently to be rescued.

Still, Yuuki would have slipped away if not for her brother’s plan. As much as she trusted her brother, it was still Yori’s fault she was in this predicament, and she was unsure if she could believe the normally loyal and caring girl.

It was rather ironic, seeing as ‘Yori’ meant trust. Her and Yuuki had been best friends since junior high. Close enough that Yuuki didn’t want hide the truth of who she was. Letting Yori in on the secret was one of the first things Yuuki had done after Rido and Shizuka had been dealt with.

 _Unless this was part of brother dear’s plans, too._ A childlike voice sang in the back of her mind. Yuuki wanted to ignore that thought, wanted to be firm in her knowledge that Kaname would never use her like that.

She was his sister, fiancée, and lover. Mother of his child. Yuuki might have been able to come to terms with it afterwards if it was just her at risk, but it wasn’t. Her left hand came up to settle lazily on her slightly protruded belly.

She blinked at the light fluttering sensation she felt, jerking upright. Wide brown eyes marveled down at her growing baby. Muscles tight with anticipation, Yuuki waited for another flutter, but none was forthcoming.

It was the second time she thought her child might be moving within her, the first time had been just after Aidou let slip to Kaname that she was pregnant. But, when the minutes trickled by without a second occourence, the Pureblood decided she must have imagined the movement, consoling herself with the fact that it was too early for the baby to moving.

However, she was so distracted by the idea that her baby might be kicking that she forgot about Kaname’s possible involvement in her kidnapping.

* * *

When the door first burst open, startling the vampire from her boredom (she had heard the racing footsteps pounding against the stone in the hallway, but Yuuki was certain that whoever was scurrying about in such a rush was not coming to visit her), her first thought was that Kaname’s plans hadn’t involved a literal breakout.

She was of two minds when she recognized the figure puffing in the doorway as Yori, with a garment bag of all things clutched in her grip.

On one hand, she felt relief, because it meant that the plan was unchanged. Yuuki actually knew very little about her brother’s plan to spring her from Sara’s imprisonment, but was certain Yori creating a racket and drawing attention to their getaway by running around and throwing open doors wasn’t part of it.

On the other, she was more than a little curious as to why Yori was so frantic and the story behind the dress bag.

So she asked. “Yori, is the plan to sneak me out in a dress bag? I think that would be rather noticeable.” It wouldn’t hurt to phrase it in such a way that she tricked Yori into revealing something about Kaname’s plan.

Brown eyes blinked at her, clearly confused. “What? No,” she said as Yuuki’s words finally filtered through. “I’m really sorry, but we don’t have time for questions. You have to hurry.”

Yori’s face shone with earnestness as she unzipped the plastic dress bag and revealed the flowing purple dress she had worn at her first vampire ball.

Yuuki had had enough. The thirst in her throat was unbearable. She longed to see sunlight again never mind that she was a vampire and that it would cause her a lot of discomfort. She wanted to be back in the Kuran Mansion with her brother. Her time locked in this cell was stressful enough, Yori’s vague reassurances fell hopelessly short, and she wasn’t going to put up with this anymore.

“Just what is going on here?” snapped Yuuki. “I’m not doing anything without an explanation.” To further emphasize her point, the vampire crossed her arms and took a seat on her bed, leveling an impatient glare at Yori.

Yuuki looked on calmly as her friend tugged her bottom lip into her mouth.

“We really don’t have time for this,” Yori muttered, nervously turning to glance over her shoulder and down both ends of the hallway. But the Pureblood remained impassive. Half a minute later Yori broke.

“Sara’s birthday gala is tonight. The entire vampire nation expects you and your brother to be there. All we have to do is sneak you inside.”

Pleased with her answers, Yuuki took the dress, slipping on the soft fabric with a little aid from Yori. The plan was surprisingly simple, but no less brilliant. Once Yuuki had been spotted and counted amongst the partygoers, Sara could not deny her leaving at the end of the event. Not without making a scene. Even if Sara did anticipate that Kaname might make a move tonight while she was preoccupied with her celebration, she probably wouldn’t think to look amongst her guest.

“Don’t forget this.”

Shaking hands wrapped around the familiar rod shaped state of Artemis. Yuuki deftly attached the leather bands around her right leg and instantly felt more at ease. It was no small amount of comfort to have her one of a kind anti-vampire weapon where it belonged. She felt more prepared and protected now that she had it back.

“Come, quickly now!” Yori urged, leading Yuuki through the basement. There was a figure waiting for them at the base of a set of stairs, which undoubtedly lead up to the first floor. However, it was not her brother, as Yuuki had been so desperately hoping for.

Still, she stomped down on the bitter feeling of disappointment and offered Akatsuki a warm smile as he held out an arm for her. It would have been suspicious if Kaname arrived and then vanished, so sending the orange haired Aristocrat in his place was sensible.

Slipping in unseen was remarkably easy. She and Akatsuki hovered in the shadow of the ballroom’s doorway, and when the music reached a crescendo and the mass of vampires within were flowing by in twirls of bright colors, her escort grabbed her by the hand, laid the other on her slim waist, and smoothly inserted them.

Yuuki stumbled a little, unused to being on her legs after her time confined to one room, but Akatsuki prevented her from falling and steadied her. He didn’t let her go when the song ended, instead leading her around the dancefloor a second time.

“Is he here?” Despite there being more than enough noise to mask their conversation, Yuuki’s question was soft spoken.

“I will return you to him momentarily,” he answered.

“Thank you.”

“Your thanks are unnecessary. Even if I were not duty bound to assist I would have,” Akatsuki said evenly.

Yuuki shook her head, looking up at her much taller dance partner with so much gratitude that he froze momentarily, surprised. “Not for what you’ve done for more,” she explained, “but for supporting Kaname. You and Aidou and all the others have stood by him and his dream of peace with humans. He was so lonely after that night. I can only imagine how he was this time, with me sequestered away where he couldn’t keep an eye on me. So, thank you.”

Akatsuki Kain couldn’t stop the small smile from forming on his normally harsh face, nor did he want to. He had loyally followed Kaname because Ruka did, but always hoped that someday he would come to believe in the man himself.

He had often been frustrated and confused by his leader’s fascination with Yuuki Cross. The girl was a human, and not even an extraordinary one at that, and Akatsuki couldn’t understand what drew others to her like a moth to a flame. Aidou had shared their future king’s fascination with her.

Yuuki’s transformation into the unknown Kuran princess had done little to change his opinion of her. Pureblood vampire she might be, but she still behaved like a human.

Now it was clear that her strength of heart was what ensnared her followers and inspired them. She cared more for Kaname and those that had kept him company over the years, simply doing as he asked, than she did for herself.

“You’re welcome, my lady.”

“May I cut in? The lady looks like she could use a drink.”

Yuuki whirled at the rich voice spoken directly in her ear, and flung herself into the man’s arms. “Onii-sama,” she whispered, and promptly burst into tears as his arms curled around her and settled against her back, pulling her upper body flush against his own.

She dug her nails into his back, leaving no space between them. She didn’t know where her body ended and his began, but she didn’t care.

“I am gratified to see you well, Yuuki, my love.”

“Me too,” she said tightly, accepting the champagne glass he pressed into her hand. “I’m glad all of this is over.”

For one moment, the world had righted itself. Both she and her baby were fine, safe and sound in Kaname’s embrace, and then Sara’s melodic voice rose above the din.

“I thank you all for attending. It has been a most delightful night so far,” the blonde smiled graciously. Her light blue eyes scanned the crowd, narrowing when they pinpointed the Kuran siblings. “But the excitement is not over yet.”

She looked every inch the reputable, regal Pureblood on the outside, but Yuuki imagined that she felt ready to spit nails with how poisonously Sara was scowling at her.

“I, Sara Shirabuki, Head of the Shirabuki Family, one of the Seven Pureblood families, under the Right of Contention, hereby do declare my intent to challenge Yuuki Kuran, of the Kuran Family. My claim to the position of Queen and Consort shall not be overlooked because of strength of Blood.”

It took the tinkle of shattering glass to tear Yuuki’s attention from the proud figure of Sara Shirabuki. Distantly, she realized that she had lost her grip on her flute of fresh blood, which she had not tasted for more than seventeen days, and that she was more upset by that than Sara throwing out some kind of gauntlet.

All around her vampires broke out into loud discussions, which were quelled as Sara opened her mouth to speak again.

“Let her come forth, or forfeit her claim,” she demanded.

The crowd of vampires between Yuuki and Sara parted before her like the Red Sea. The brunette ignored them, looking beseechingly up at Kaname’s face. His countenance was furious. “Kaname, what is she doing?”

“Akatsuki,” he spoke commandingly, not answering her.

The orange haired Aristocrat didn’t give Yuuki the opportunity to ask again. His arm replaced Kaname’s and he was tugging her forward, directing her to stand in front of the other Pureblood. Kaname followed, cutting an imposing figure from his place between the two females, exactly an arm’s length from each.

Yuuki would have expected a deafening silence. Even though she didn’t understand what was happening, everyone else in the room clearly did. She thought silence was supposed to follow moments like this.

“As the challenged,” Kaname spoke directly to her, “you have the rights to set the conditions of the challenge. Be warned, they must be fair to both involved parties.”

Fair. What about this situation was fair? Yuuki didn’t even have half of an idea of what Sara had just done. She hadn’t read anything about other Purebloods being able to issue challenges for the throne. And just what was she supposed to be doing? Picking some kind test that matched her own skill’s against Sara’s? If that was the case, never mind being fair to her. The woman was over ten thousand years old. The odds were weighted in her favor.

Yuuki’s mind raced, trying to find something that would fit. She supposed it would be unfair to have them fight over Kaname’s affections, since she held a monopoly on those. Anything that dealt with the human world would be considered unfair because she had been a human for the last decade, and Sara had the upper hand where vampires were concerned.

But what did that leave her with?

Her fingers brushed against Artemis, hidden from sight on her thigh. A fight was considered fair, right? She briefly thought back on the three way battle that had been fought on the rooftops of Cross Academy. Pureblood solved things by fighting. They would both have their own skill and ability. Yuuki believed she stood a chance so long as she wielded Artemis. It was an anti-vampire weapon after all.

“I choose battle.” Sara’s eyes widened in surprise, not anticipating that response.

Kaname’s wine colored irises gleamed a bright red for a split second, and then he turned to look at Sara. “As the one who issued the challenge, it is your right to decide upon the day it shall be met.”

The blonde’s answer was immediate. “The Winter Solstice.”

“Very well. I has been decided. Yuuki Kuran, of the Kuran Family, and Sara Shirabuki, of the Shirabuki Family, shall meet in a contest of battle on December, 21.”

In the resulting silence, Kaname swept her out of the ballroom with Akatsuki on her other side, through the front door, and into the limo, driven by Aidou. The normally cheerful Aristocrat wasted no time peeling away from the Shirabuki estate.


	10. Chapter 10

Yuuki curled into her brother’s side, pressing her face into his shoulder. She was tired and hungry enough to drain several humans, not that she would ever do so. But the pain in her mouth was mounting, and she wanted nothing more than to sink her fangs into Kaname’s neck and feast on his blood; fresh blood that she had been denied and craved for weeks.

She inhaled slowly, attempting to calm her urges. It was a mistake.

The scent of her brother’s blood, spicy and tantalizing as the first time she had smelt it, filled her sense. She could hear it, pulsing through his veins to the steady beat of his heart; feel its heat beneath the satin cloth that separated her from his skin.

Her fangs extended, practically throbbing with need. Yuuki stopped breathing, hoping Kaname’s scent would dissipate, or at least she would acclimate to it enough to retract her fangs. As much as she desired his blood, and Yuuki knew it must be the same for him, the backseat of the limo, with Aidou and Akatsuki present, was not the place for their reunion.

“Are you alright, Yuuki?”

With tremendous effort, she pulled herself away from Kaname. Sitting up, she saw that Akatsuki had taken the seat opposite her, leaving Aidou to be behind the wheel. It explained the speed. The blond Aristocrat was of the opinion that mundane things like speed limits and traffic lights were for the benefits of humans who did not possess his amazing reflexes.

“I’m fine, Kaname-nii-sama.”

Kaname’s large hand entwined with her smaller one, and he set their clasped hands on her knee. Up front, Aidou peered into the rearview mirror, the joy in his ice blue eyes matched by that in his smile.

“Good to have you back, Yuuki-sama,” he said warmly.

It was too much for her. The safety, familiarity and comfort of her brother’s arms. Aidous sincere kindness and overwhelming joy. Akatsuki’s steady and silent support. After all the stress of the last couple of weeks, it was too much.

Yuuki promptly burst into noisy tears, to which the ice-wielding vampire jerked the steering wheel. The right tire jumped up on the curb, jostling the vehicle’s occupants and bowling over a mailbox, and Aidou hastily righted the limo.

“Don’t cry, Yuuki-sama! Please don’t cry!” he pleaded. “My lord will murder me!” He was truly panicking, knowing how protective the Kuran lord was of his little sister.

She peered up at her brother, whose lips were quirked in mild amusement. Aidou, still babbling apologies and entreaties, seemed to have completely forgotten that said lord was in the car with him, reverting back to his natural panic whenever Yuuki’s hormones got the better of her. Yuuki thought he should have been a pro at handling a crying female at this point, but it appeared the Aidou would forever be a hopeless case.

The brunette released a high pitched giggle. All three men visibly relaxed at the sound. “I’m fine. I promise. Hormones,” she offered, knowing they would accept it. It was the excuse for all of her out of character behavior and sudden changes in mood.

She scrubbed at her eyes, removing the tears that still clung to her eyelashes. “It’s just . . . I know I already said this,” Yuuki glanced at her orange haired bodyguard as she spoke, “but thank you. All of you.”

And then the dam broke. What words of appreciation she had were lost as her tears fell anew and she cried and blubbered. She said something about how happy she was, repeatedly thanked them, and continually asserted that she had known her nii-sama would come for her.

* * *

Kaname’s heart constricted painfully as he wrapped his still sobbing sister in a rib-breaking worthy embrace while she tearfully thanked them for coming to her rescue.

It wasn’t caused by her tears, though he hated it when Yuuki cried. It was guilt.

Even though he had discarded the idea almost as soon as he had thought of it, Kaname had briefly considered that the best path forward would be to leave his beloved in Sara’s prison so that the other Pureblood would think she had won and become complacent in turn.

“Of course we came to rescue you!” Hanabusa exclaimed, aghast at the very notion of not doing so.

It endeared the overly cheerful vampire to him further. He had never considered not going after Yuuki as an option. Hanabusa’s idolization of himself would dim if he knew the truth. It pleased Kaname to know, because it meant that Hanabusa truly cared for Yuuki’s well-being and was not watching over her simply because he had ordered it, and that he could continue to trust him to look after her and stand by her side.

“I have already told you that your gratitude is not required.”

The male Pureblood did not miss the hooded glance Akatsuki gave his love, nor how she responded, with a softening of her features that conveyed that she understood his message and was going to feel her way regardless and he would damn well accept her feelings on the matter. Yuuki had shown Kaname that look several times as he revealed his plans and goals piece by piece, displaying her unconditional love and support. In Akatsuki’s case, her only emotions were gratitude and appreciation.

Kaname carded a hand through her brown locks, uncaring that they were oily because Shirabuki had little regard for her prisoner’s personal hygiene. Being able to hold her after three weeks of separation was a dream, and he revealed that he could feel the softness of her skin again. Yuuki drew comfort from his touch, all but sagging against him.

Unbidden, Yuuki yawned. Eyes fluttering, she leaned her head back against his shoulder, allowing his actions to quickly lull her to sleep.

“Will she be alright?” Hanabusa asked softly, concerned eyes locked on the figure of the sleeping girl who he had bonded so closely with.

“She will recover with time. Yuuki is strong,” was Kaname’s answer. Hanabusa nodded, never having doubted that.

No more words were spoken as the blond Aristocrat continued toward the Kuran Mansion. The three males were content to see Yuuki unharmed in the arms of her other half.

Hanabusa smoothly stopped the limo at the base of the impressive entrance to the mansion, and Akatsuki held open the door, allowing for Kaname to exit with ease, Yuuki cradled in his arms like she was made of glass. By an unspoken agreement, both Aristocrats vanished into the depths of the first floor, allowing their lord the privacy he craved as he quietly ascended to the second floor and down the hall to the room he shared with Yuuki.

With exaggerated gentleness, Kaname laid his love down on their bed and tucked her in. His fingers ghosted over the contours of her face, slightly more pronounced after three weeks in Sara’s company, being feed just enough to not starve. The purpling bruises under her eyes showed her stress and exhaustion, and the corners of her eyes were pinched tight.

Kaname retreated to stand beside the window, where he would stand vigil the rest of the night. The soft white light of the moon made Yuuki look even frailer.

How he wanted to crawl in behind her. To hold her close and never let go. But he didn’t deserve the loving smiles she gave him, never mind her touch. How could he even think to want her affections when he had arranged for this very outcome?

She would not forgive him this time, he knew. His Yuuki possessed boundless compassion, evidenced by her friendship with the Kiryu boy, but even she had her limits.

His sigh was inaudible, but his fiancée rolled over at the same moment, whispering his name. “Kaname.”

The ancient Pureblood did not fear much. Kaname knew his powers were unmatched, being the very first of his kind. Sara’s attempted coup d'état was more amusing than anything. She was foolish to think she could outwit him in the game they played.

But he feared losing Yuuki. Despite her love for him, there was a high chance she would leave him, and Kaname wouldn’t begrudge her the choice, heavy were his transgressions. His love’s trust in him would shatter when she learned the lengths he was willing to go, the risks he wanted to take and the sacrifices he planned to make.

No, it was deeper than fear. Yuuki was the sole bright point in his existence. Everything he had done was for her sake, so that she might live in a world without hate or violence.

Kaname had despaired when Rido Kuran had reawakened him. Had he not suffered enough? The heartbreak he had felt when she sacrificed herself was more than enough for his ten thousand years. The idea of living again, in a world crueler than the one he had known, had been daunting.

That was when Yuuki had arrived.

Small and pink and wailing, Kaname had thought nothing of his new ‘sibling.’ Then she opened her eyes, already the warm chocolate brown he loved, and smiled a toothless smile at him, and the several millennia old vampire remembered thinking that he had never seen anything more beautiful.

The ten years in which his beloved had been human, without any memory of who he was or what she meant to him, had been the longest years of his life. Kaname constantly feared that Yuuki would be taken from him during that time, the most likely culprit being Zero Kiryu whom she had hovered over like a mother hen.

He would not survive if Yuuki left him. The crushing pain of being alone again after opening his heart a second time would destroy him.

The moon arced across the night sky, shining brightly on the stillness of the mansion, for not a soul within moved until dawn broke.

* * *

Sara waited, perfectly still. A pleasant smile graced her face, though the emotions in her eyes were anything but. They promised retribution.

The Pureblood prided herself on her control, both of herself and her emotions and her ability to manipulate those she surrounded herself with like a master puppeteer.

She had expected Yori’s deception. Her timing was too convenient and the girl was too subservient, never fighting for Sara’s attention like the rest of her girls. But she welcomed the foolish girl into the fold, allowed her to believe she was secretly providing Kaname with the information he needed to triumph over her.

It mattered not how much Kaname knew, because she had the upper hand. Sara was superior to the human trash in every way, and when it came time to fulfill the challenge she had set, she would prove so, utterly dominating and annihilating the youngest Kuran.

Knowing that Kaname depended on her for intelligence and her position as one of the vampire’s favorite handmaidens, Yori’s overt betrayal had come as a surprise. Even more so when the girl had not fled with the rest of her cohorts.

“You summoned me, my lady?” came the human’s soft tone from the doorway. 

“Come in, darling Yori. I have an important matter I need to discuss with you.” Sara smiled invitingly, sweeping an arm to gesture the girl forward.

Permission given, the brunette confidently approached the Pureblood, kneeling on bended knee dutifully. “How may I serve you, my lady?”

Sara reached out, long, slender fingers grasping the other female’s chin, musing how easy it would be to squeeze and crush it. She felt an honest bit of regret, because Yori was precisely the type of girl she might have granted long life to. But it was fleeting, acknowledged and tucked away as she pressed hard enough to have bruises blossom beneath her fingers.

The human gasped, a sound which pleased Sara greatly.

“You helped that pitiful excuse for a human to escape.” Yori’s eyes glittered with defiance. Her lips tightened into a thin line, which curved slightly at the ends, refusing to comment.

Sara tsk’ed, as if she was scolding a young child for sneaking a cookie before dinner. “You should have let that corrupted filth be. Look closely at where it has gotten you. Abandoned by those you served so loyally.”

The blonde then smiled delightedly. “Your darling Yuuki left you behind. Chose her freedom over your friendship.” She stroked Yori’s cheek with the tip of her forefinger. The girl shuddered at the touch.

“But perhaps it was for the best. She would have left you behind anyway, when you die sometime this century. Perhaps Yuuki saw your true worth and cut her ties accordingly.”

Sara jerked the girl forward, never relinquishing her hold on Yori’s jaw, forcing her to stumble and land on both knees. Then, before she had a chance to recover, Sara sank her fangs into the soft flesh of her neck, deep enough that they pierced the girl’s clavicle.

Yori screamed and writhed beneath her, an action the Pureblood relished. This bite was not as gentle as her typical interactions with her handmaidens. It would do her no good to mar their necks with scars or render them unable to feed her because she was too forceful. But that was not her intention with Yori. A painful bite would be forgotten, the pain would become a dim memory and the human would continue to defy her.

No, it was much more satisfying to turn her into a vampire. Better in terms of her plans, too. If she survived, the girl would be dependent on Sara, for only by drinking the blood of her creator could she keep from descending into madness and losing her precious humanity.

It had the added bonus of destroying Yuuki, who would no doubt be guilt ridden upon learning that her friend had become one of the stereotypical monsters that haunted humans’ dreams nowadays. She would be angry when she faced Sara, desiring revenge instead of the win, and her rage would make her sloppy.

Of course, the girl’s death would work just as well. The outcome mattered not. She was killing two birds with one stone, as the humans like to say.

“I’ll have one of my girls check on you in an hour.”

With that parting comment, Sara swept out of the room, blonde locks flowing behind her in the picture of grace. On the ground, Yori continued to twitch and convulse, crying out loudly. The thick wooden doors closed behind the Pureblood with a resounding thud, muffling her shrieks of pain.


	11. Chapter 11

For once, the inhabitants of the Kuran mansion were operating on a typical vampire schedule. Yuuki slept deeply during the sunlit hours. It was only to be expected. Purebloods, with age, could fight off the natural pull to sleep during the human day. Yuuki had been an exception in that regard. A combination of sheer stubbornness, wanting to prove herself as a newly rediscovered Pureblood, and her refusal to give up the bonds she had with Yori and her father. The last three weeks, however, could not be held at bay with willpower alone. Yuuki’s body had been pushed beyond her limit.

She slept for three days straight, feeding unconsciously when one of her companions gently pressed his wrist to her lips. Akatsuki, Aidou, and Kaname were well aware that the female Pureblood had been denied the supply of fresh blood she required. Concerned for her wellbeing and those of her children, they offered blood frequently. Aidou would have trashed all the synthetic blood tablets in the mansion if not for the other’s Aristocrat’s reminder that it was they who need them in order to provide for Yuuki.

The brunette finally stirred on the fourth day.

“Kaname-nii-sama?” she mumbled, wondering why he was stood by the window and not in bed with her. She forced heavy lids open as she raised herself into a half sitting half reclining position. Her brother was watching her expressionlessly.

“Join me.” Yuuki didn’t know whether it was more of a plea or a demand.

Silence stretched between and Kaname remained unmoving. Then the bed dipped as he molded himself to her, pressing against her back.

Yuuki sighed, blissful. “I’ve not had such a wonderful dream for some time.”

Kaname’s grip tightened. “This is no dream, my love.”

She twisted in his arms. Wine colored eyes pinned her. Her own eyes never left his as he spoke. “You’re home. You’re safe. I’m here.”

“And the baby?” Yuuki hunched in on herself, carefully cradling her distended stomach. The bump was hardly noticeably. Calculating the math in her head, the brunette estimated she had seventeen weeks to go. For the first time since she had learned of her pregnancy, she was irritated.

The two month shorter gestation period messed with her ability to gauge how well she was doing. She was halfway through her pregnancy and she felt like she had no control. Yuuki was aware of how thin she was. Her stomach was starting to look like she swallowed a beach ball. And even though her malnourished state wasn’t her fault, she felt tears well up in her eyes. She was going to be a horrible mother. Her child hadn’t been born yet and she was incapable of taking care of it.

Her lover grasped her chin, drawing Yuuki’s head up to meet his gaze once more. Instinctively, she steeled herself. As the bodies of three vampires had turned to dust, Kaname had promised to stop hiding things from her. And while recent events had rekindled her doubts that he shared all of his plans with her, Yuuki knew he wouldn’t lie or sugarcoat. She appreciated his candor, even at times like this where it did nothing to ease her fears. He gently brushed away her unspilled tears.

Indeed, his next words were like ripping off a bandage. “You’ve consumed a large quantity of false blood in the last three weeks. While fresh is preferable, theoretically, there should not be any complications because the tablets do contain all the same nutrients and vitamins. Being a recent development, a polite alternative so this generation could attend school alongside humans, I don’t know how your body will react.”

Yuuki exhaled. Looking down at clenched fists, she missed noticing how her brother ultimately hesitated on saying something else and remained silent. No more than she had expected. All she could do was resume drinking fresh blood and hope for the best.

‘Everything will be fine,’ she encouraged herself. If she had had nothing else, the brunette had always had hope. Belief had sustained her thus far. Hope had seen her rescued. For her family, Yuuki would continue to believe with all her heart that everything would be okay.

The distinctive sound of knuckles rapping on wood had hardly sounded before her brother called for Aidou and Akatsuki to enter.

“Is that smile for me or the drink, Yuuki-sama?” The ice wielding vampire teases, shaking the pitcher of blood he carries. She laughs, delighted that her friends aren’t going to treat her like she’s made of glass. “We’ve been saving up, so no need to hold back. Drink as much as you’d like.”

Yuuki briefly considered the drink glass Akatsuki carried, and promptly threw manners and her dignity out the proverbial window. She swiped the crystalline pitcher from Aidou’s hands and set about noisily slurping it. The taste of fresh blood, which she had been denied for so long, was exquisite.

She licked ruby covered lips, not wanting to waste a drop, and passed on Akatsuki’s offer to fetch a second pitcher if she was still famished. She was pleasantly full, for now.

“So what exactly did I sign myself up for last night?” she asked.

“It wasn’t last night!” Aidou said, rushed. “You’ve been asleep for three days.”

Yuuki stared at him, nonplussed. Three days. That certainly explained her being able to drink a whole pitcher of blood. “Right. So what exactly did I sign myself up for four days ago?” she repeated.

“It’s an Olde tradition,” began Kaname. “The Right of Contention allows for a vampire of any stature to challenge another under certain circumstances. Traditionally, it was issued by Pureblood families that didn’t have two children of different genders. They would fight for the right to wed an already betrothed Pureblood.”

Yuuki’s mind jumped to her parents and Rido, wondering if the younger of the brothers had ever challenged her father for the right to marry her mother. It would go a long way to explain his obsession if Rido had felt entitled and yet failed to win his challenge.

“Being as the Right of Contention is a well-accepted and even more so respected tradition, it quickly became connected to a Pureblood’s honor. While it is allowable to decline, the Pureblood who rejected the Right is viewed as lesser.”

“And no vampire would swear to a Pureblood Queen who was seen as dishonorable,” whispered Yuuki. Her stomach flip-flopped uncomfortably.

“The Right of Contention was never written into law,” her brother continued, “but it is socially disastrous to back down when challenged, especially in our situation.”

Yuuki, however, didn’t hear a word he had said. She felt like there was cotton stuffed in her ears. All she could make out was Kaname’s muffled low tones. Lightning had struck, and suddenly she realized this was his plan all along.

Kaname would reintroduce her to the vampire nation as his lost, and therefore Pureblood, sister. Unable to deny a Pureblood, the rest of her kind would accept her on Kaname’s say so, never voicing their doubts. Freshly woken as she was with barely three months of training, it wasn’t like Yuuki could display mastery of her unique Pureblood power. She wasn’t even sure what her special ability was, aside from the fact that she could touch and wield anti-vampire weapons, which, while useful in her upcoming fight against Shirabuki, definitely wouldn’t endear her to the rest of the vampire nation.

And that was what Kaname’s plan boiled down to. He backed Shirabuki into a corner by producing Yuuki as her competition. Sara would have no choice but to either remove the newly established Pureblood or challenge her. Sara had tried to stack her hand by doing both, locking Yuuki away so the Kuran princess would be unable to answer the challenge set to her, and thus have her honor besmirched. If Kaname had chosen a queen without honor, there would be another war, this time with the vampires attempting to rise up against the Purebloods.

With the gauntlet thrown, not only would the other vampire classes accept the winner as their Queen, if Yuuki won it would quiet their concerns about her Pureblood status. After all, who else but another Pureblood could beat a Pureblood in battle?

A horrible thought she had once dismissed as out of hand returned. Had her brother been part of her kidnapping? It would be just like him to let Shirabuki think she had the upper hand, manipulating her into making the decision for him via the Right of Contention.

Yuuki felt her lungs tighten, squeezing out any air that may have been in them. Kaname’s entire plan hinged on her beating Sara in a one on one fight. How was she supposed to win when her opponent had several millennia under her belt? It didn’t matter that she had Artemis. Yuuki only had a few years training. What had she been thinking challenge Sara to battle? She didn’t have any chance of winning.

“Why?” she cried helplessly, startling her three companions.

How could he justify risking her? Their child? Did Kaname care for them at all, or did he only see how he could use them? Were they all just pawns on his chessboard? And what about Yori? The other girl hadn’t been included in their escape. Was she worth less because she was human? It was because of Kaname that her best friend had been working for Sara. Yuuki had spent three weeks cursing her best friend, stung by what she believed to be a betrayal. It didn’t make it any less of a betrayal if her brother was the mastermind behind the decision, but Yuuki was well aware of how convincing said brother could be. Undoubtedly he had work his charm, or maybe even his Pureblood magic, to persuade Yori that such an action was for the best.

“Yuuki, darling.” Kaname reached out a hand to caress her face. Yuuki slapped it away, angry tears sliding down her cheeks.

“You promised no more secrets! Why would you lie to me?”

“I don’t understand,” Kaname said slowly, like he was trying to think about what he could have done to upset. He always spoke with this low, soothing tone when she got emotional and he wanted her to understand his point of view.

Recognizing it for the stalling tactic that it was, Yuuki levered herself to her feet, sidestepping a visibly nervous Aidou who didn’t know whether to prevent her from leaving the behind or hide from her building wrath.

“You planned for this!” she practically shrieked. “You always intended for it to come down to this ridiculous Right of Contention. You couldn’t allow for any other scenario. Never mind that you’re essentially the first vampire reborn and could probably force the vampire nation into following your bidding. You want them to feel like they chose you.”

The last line was spat at Kaname with a spectacular amount of derision. Behind him, Akatsuki and Aidou were exchanging bewildered looks, silently debating if this matter concerned them. Normally, they’d leave the two Kurans to their privacy, but the two Purebloods were arguing over a plan both Aristocrats had been part of and supported, even though they weren’t aware of every stage involved. Both males had expected this treatment, as Purebloods were extremely inclusive, and very used to it after years at Cross Academy under Kaname’s leadership.

But Yuuki was perturbed, and rightfully so given their lord’s lack of rebuttal.

“Did you think that I wouldn’t agree if I had known? Are you just too used to not having to share that it didn’t even cross your mind to let me know the full extent of your plan? How do you expect me to beat Sara when I’m pregnant?”

Kaname made to speak, but she continued to steamroll over him. “Oh, I know I won’t be come the Winter Solstice, but that’s far from the point. I could have been. It’s not as if we’ve been careful in that regard.” Yuuki would later remember that Aidou and Akatsuki were present for that revelation, and blush furiously when either met her eyes.

Her rage vanished suddenly, and the adrenaline that had kept her standing had fled with it. She collapsed into Kaname’s waiting arms. Exhausted, she curled her fingers into the fabric of his shirt. “I just don’t understand why you would keep this from me. We’re supposed to be partners.”

Her brother gathered her close, positioning Yuuki so she perched as comfortable as she could in his lap. “I didn’t want for you to worry or stress. It’s not healthy for you,” he murmured into her ear.

“Those are excuses,” she said flatly, “and bad ones at that.”

“There are times when we are going to have to work separately to achieve what we want.”

Yuuki shoved against his chest until the arms around her relented and she could pull back enough to meet his eyes head on. “I don’t care about have to work separately! I just want you to stop lying to me ‘for my own good.’ You promised men,” she whispered brokenly. “No more secrets.”

“No more secrets,” he vowed, wine colored eyes shining with sincerity.

“So there’s nothing else you’re keeping from me?” she tested.

“Yuuki-sama, you’re going to have twins!” shouted Aidou.

Both Pureblood vampires whipped their heads around to face the ice wielder, who was hiding behind the taller Akatsuki with hunched shoulders and both hands clapped over his mouth. Yuuki stared at him, uncomprehending while her lover’s gaze threatened disembowelment should Aidou say another word.

Was it possible for vampires to get headaches? Because Yuuki was starting to think she might be getting one.


End file.
